


Horrortober 2017

by BlackPrism



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horrortale, Alternate Universe - Swapfell, Alternate Universe - Underfell, Alternate Universe - Underswap, Halloween, Horror, prompts, underswap - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-18 20:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 37
Words: 24,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12395742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackPrism/pseuds/BlackPrism
Summary: Horrortober prompts from Tumblr, some days have more than one chapter, some have only one.But all are spooky in some way.





	1. Day 1 - UT Sans

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to collect the Horrortober prompts I wrote in one fanfic here.  
> Horrortober List: https://bonelynomore.tumblr.com/post/165910598640/horrortober

Day 1 - Stuck in complete darkness, you hear a tap, tap, tap :

Sans didn’t mind being alone at home. He did prefer to spend his time with a friend, or his brother, he was a pretty social sack of bones. But some quiet time alone with the TV humming softly in the background. Yeah, he didn’t mind that. 

The light turned off. So did the TV. Great, just great. Blackouts weren’t uncommon these days, so many monsters moving to the surface, so many new homes being built, so many new people using electricity, an entire town of new people. But no matter how often they happened, Sans couldn’t get used to them.

Underground, there was always a bit of stray light, how ironic that may sound. Crystals reflecting the light that fell through cracks in the ceiling, or came from bioluminescent plants and mushrooms. Even in the middle of the night, you could open your eyes and still see the vague shapes of your furniture.

On the surface, however, things were slightly different. Depending on the moon, the clouds and how far away the nearest city was, things could be either bright as day, or as dark as a hidden cave in the farthest place of the Underground. The town the monsters lived in was fairly small, the blackout turning off the few streetlights outside. No big city nearby, no light pollution. No moon out tonight. Complete darkness.

Well, nap time it is. Sans plopped down on the couch, lying down comfortably and hoping that Papyrus wouldn’t sit down on him when he came home. His eyesockets shut slowly as…tap tap tap. 

“Hu?”, Sans sat up, already drowsy from sleep, rubbing his hand over his face. Tap tap tap. He got up slowly, making his way through the darkness, trying to find the source of that noise. Tap tap ta-….SLAM. “Ouch”, Sans yelped as his shin collided with something hard. Well, he knew where the coffee table was now.

The tapping continued as he felt his way through the dark room, growing louder as he came closer to its source. His fingers slid over cool glass as he found the window. Sans chuckled, it’s just the tree branches knocking at the glass. He lay down on the couch again, ignoring the continuing tapping. Ha, it almost sounded like the sound was moving. He drifted back to sleep as a thought crossed his mind.

There were no trees outside their house.


	2. Day 2 - US Sans

Day 2 - Amazing cooks can turn anything into excellent food. Well, almost anything.

He was so excited to try out this new recipe. Sans bought all ingredients a few days ago, preparing everything that had to be prepared in advance right away, barely able to wait until he had everything and all the preparations were done.

He even borrowed his brother’s plant guide, wanting to go pick some fresh blueberries himself. And he found some, they did look slightly odd, a dark, purplish blue on a pink branch. But hey, his amazing cooking skills could turn everything into good food, even this kind of weird blueberries.

The smell of the pie was amazing. The crust almost completely golden already. Sans was sitting in front of the oven, looking through the glass in the door, excited to finally get a taste of it. He really had a bit of a sweet tooth. And he followed the recipe almost to the point. He did manage to drop the bowl where he marinated a few pears in sugary water and honey, so he had to fill the pie up with more blueberries then pears.

But as he cut himself a piece, he didn’t regret that at all. The blueberries were juicy and still as plump and beautiful as before. The pears were few, but there were enough for his taste. He broke through the crust with his fork and tried the first bite. It was amazing. Well, of course, it was, after all, he made it

Before he even noticed he had already finished three-quarters of the pie. Woops…at least Papyrus could still have a whole quarter to himself. 

One day of cleaning the house, shooing Papyrus home from Muffets and then shooing his brother from the couch to his room Sans woke up in cold sweat. Something was definitely wrong. His soul was pounding hard, his bones were rattling, going from hot and cold, a sharp pain went from his middle outside, like somebody was gutting him with a knife repeatedly. 

He barely made it to the bathroom before blue magic was spilling out of his mouth, the pain growing worse, as he bent over the sink, tears running from his eye sockets while he was retching and coughing up his latest meal. What was going on? He hasn’t eaten anything weird today, the same tacos for dinner he had every day, the same Softdrink Papyrus keeps buying.

He collapsed on the soft rug in front of the sink, bones clanking against the tiles as he lay there, curled on his side, shaking and rattling. His stomach felt like a knife was cutting through it, and up to his chest, where his soul was hammering against his ribs. Sweat pooled on his skull as his eye lights unfocused, his breath ragged and heavy. 

The pie! He never tried that recipe before. He never collected blueberries before. His mind started to swim, sharp pain bringing him back to full consciousness for a few moments before he drifted off again. Raw magic and spit were pooling in his mouth, sour and with a strong, rancid taste to it.

He threw up again, openly bawling now from the pain and fear, trying to get up on his hands and knees to get help, get his brother, do something. He just wanted his brother, Papy where are you, please help me. Please, Papy. He tried to call for him, no sound left his mouth, the strain only increasing the pain in his abdomen. His jelly-like stomach gurgled unhappily, twisting harshly, making Sans wince and shudder in pain. He collapsed back onto the floor, his arms shaking too much to hold him upright any longer, his head hitting the tile hard, his vision swimming.

Those blueberries weren’t blueberries.


	3. Day 2 - Muffet

Day 2 - Amazing cooks can turn anything into excellent food. Well, almost anything 

Muffet loved coming up with new recipes. And she loved trying out new foods, new ingredients, new ways to prepare dishes.   
She loved combining new things together, but the Underground didn’t offer a lot of different ingredients.   
And with every day she came closer to the day, she would run out of new things to try, new things to cook. And she wasn’t ready for that yet.   
She wasn’t ready to give up the only thing that still made sense in this hellhole.

She called for a few of her spiders, she wasn’t running out of ingredients if she still had a say in this.   
She told them to bring all the spiders that fell down recently, pile them up on her counter and then leave the room. 

It wasn’t too hard to crush her spiders, rip out their tiny legs, grind their bodies into a fine mousse, adding in a few legs for taste, some spices.   
It hurt somewhere deep in her soul, but she kept going. They were as good as dead already, they would just turn into dust in a few more hours, it didn’t matter.

She added the ground up spiders to some pastry dough she set aside a few hours ago, added some berries and chocolate to it and baked it like every day like she didn’t add her own kind to the dough.   
It smelled…different. Somehow wrong, but so good at the same time.

Monsters loved the new Spider Donuts and Spider Croissant, Spider Cider and Spider Muffins.   
She planned on adding spiders to every dish she ever created.   
But she started to run out of fallen down spiders. 

Well, it was kill or be killed after all.


	4. Day 3 - UF Sans

Day 3 - The ghost was kind. Until you mentioned how they died

Sans has killed his fair share of monsters and humans in his life. He usually tried not, for his brothers sake. But that wasn’t always possible. What he didn’t expect was one of them returning as a ghost. He did meet his fair share of ghosts, but those were ghost monsters, not somebody he killed himself and who was not hovering in front of him, the holes where he impaled them on some bones there, plain as day.

Yop, definitely that kid that went through the Underground, stabbing people left and right. “hi…”, Sans didn’t really know what to do. It’s not like that happened every day. The ghost just smiled, stretching out their hands, the same way he greeted them so long ago. Before they started stabbing people.   
Before they attacked his brother, cutting a deep scar into his eye socket.   
Sans was just glad he survived attacking the kid, they were already so weakened he actually managed to take them out somehow.

He tried to ask them what they were doing here, why they were here, but they just smiled, hovering there a few feet over the ground, otherwise unmoving.   
Sans thought it was the best to at least apologize for what he did, Papyrus would want him to do that. 

“hey kid….uhm….sorry for the whole killing you thing…you know…” Nailed it. He was terrible at apologies.

The ghost didn’t take it to well. Screetching a high-pitched scream, their face contorted in rage and anger, twisting until they weren’t a young kid anymore.   
Not even humanlike. Or monsterlike. Just transparent flesh, full of deep grooves, that were once wrinkles and now stretched over the entire face, showing nothing else, no eyes, now mouth.   
The face stretched longer, the neck followed, the arms and legs turning into round stumps, the fingers stretching into claws.

Sans backed away, covering the sides of his skull to keep out the sound, which was reverberating in his skull, feeling like hundreds of tiny nails were scratching him from the inside. 

The thing came closer, scream growing louder and more high-pitched. Sans felt something wet run down the sides of his skull. 

Marrow. 

The pain from his skull went to his neck, his arms, his hands. He looked at his hands.   
It didn’t just feel like tiny nails were scratching him, there were scratches and cuts appearing all over his bones,   
marrow dripping out of them. He checked his HP in a panic and felt slight relive when he saw that it was still a stable, still at 1. 

The relieve didn’t last long. The kid was now just a twirling mass of ghostly flesh, slowly engulfing Sans.   
He screamed in pain, every centimeter of his bones that got covered by the transparent, moving mass burned like touched by acid. He tried shaking them off, trashing, kicking and screaming.   
He tried shoving them off, but the mass just latched onto his hands, crawling up his arms, up to his shoulders, up to his neck, slowly covering his face.

The weight was pressing him to the ground, he wasn’t able to stand or sit up, unable to move.   
His eye lights shrunk in fear, his bones rattling and fear as he saw the flesh starting to seep into the cuts all over his bones.   
He screamed his throat raw in utter and sheer panic, as the mass shifted once more, pouring into his mouth, moving down his throat,   
into his ecto stomach, seeping into the cuts inside his skull, into his eyesockets, renedering him blind, deaf and mute.  
Unable to move.

He could feel the flesh move inside his bones, grounding them to dust from the inside, dissolving the ecto flesh. 

Unable to fight, move or even scream, Sans saw himself slowly fall to dust.


	5. Day 4 - UT Toriel

Day 4 - Buried Alive

After monsters moved to the surface, a lot of humans complained. Complained that monsters were locked under the earth for a reason.   
That it would be foolish to let them back up. That it would be foolish not to lock them back where they belonged.

And things didn’t quiet down. They just got worse. Until all monsters of the Underground woke up one morning, just to find themselves in tiny, human-sized coffins, buried deep under the earth.   
Toriel Dreemurr opened her eyes to complete darkness, as did all her friends and family.   
Too far away from each other to know about the others fate, too far away to hear each other, to comfort each other, hundreds of monsters screamed in fear as their bodies collided with the wood of the coffin lid.

Toriel placed one of her soft paws against the wood above her. Her feet were pressed firmly against one side if the coffin, not giving her enough room to stretch out properly. Her horns scraped against the other side of the coffin. She took a deep shuddering breath, trying to calm herself, to compose herself. Like a queen should do. 

All alone, unable to sit up or move at all, the wood pressing in from all sides, her fur tangling in the rough planks, she started to softly cry. the crying turned into wailing, as she tried to push open the lid, again and again to no avail. The pushing turned into scratching, which turned into desperate clawing and pounding.

She couldn’t move, she couldn’t get out, she couldn’t breathe. Why was breathing getting so hard? How long has she been down here? Was the air already used up? She breathed harder, and faster, not stopping to claw at the wood.

She felt something wet run down her arms, and drip onto her face. felt pieces of fur drift down. But she barely registered it. Her mind was just focused on one thought. Get out. Get OUT. GET OUT!

She started pounding against the wood, feeling it splinter beneath her paws, felt the bones inside her splinter as well. A tiny shimmer of hope blossomed in her soul as she felt the wood bend and break.

Only for that hope to be buried beneath a stream of earth that came crashing through the holes in the wood, falling into her mouth, her nose, her eyes. Filling every little gap that was left in the coffin. Suffocating her on heaps of earth, as she lay there, unable to move, tons and tons of earth above her, pressing down.

Years, decades later a few human archeologists found hundreds of coffins beneath a field, next to a small town near a mountain. All coffins were buried at approximately the same time. There was no record of a cemetery existing there. There was no record of another settlement existing there before. No record of that many people dying at the same time in the small town. No record of anything.

All coffins were filled to the brim with dust.


	6. Day 5 - US Sans

Day 5 - Zombies are loose in the mall! (Prompt Credit to Temmie-Anon) 

Human shopping malls were an amazing new discovery for Sans. So many things. So many things of each thing and so much more things on top of each of those. And so many benches were his brother could nap. Usually Sans disproved of those haps, but he allowed it this time. Better than having his lanky brother complain all day long, while Sans dragged him through all shops and aisles. 

Sans was looking at a cute skirt as he suddenly heard a ruckus behind him. Then screams. Fast, running steps. As he turned around things were already going down. Humans were running through the mall, to the exits and windows, screaming. Elderly and young humans fell to the ground, mothers dropped their babies, unable to pick them back up. All on the ground were trampled in the panic.

The mass of people was followed by what looked to be slow, walking humans. Sans took a step back, confused and scared as suddenly one of the slower humans lunged at an older man, who was left behind by the masses. The human, no, that wasn’t a human anymore, the thing ripped out the older man’s throat, blood gushing farther and in more quantity then Sans has ever seen.

The older man made a few terrifying, gurgling sounds as a loud banging and more screams distracted the thing, it let go of the man and shuffling off to the sound. The man desperately clawed at his throat, trying to keep the red liquid inside, it just pouring through his fingers as he started moving towards Sans.

Sans was frozen in shock as the older man hobbled towards him, collapsing against his chest, smearing his blood all over Sans as he slid down, gurgling and shaking. Sans looked at the blood on him, shocked to the core at the suddenly still form of the man to his feet. He crouched down, stretching out his hand to touch him. He didn’t know why he did that. Nothing made sense anymore.

The man suddenly lunged at him, eyes bleary and wide, covered with a milky film. Grip stronger than before. Teeth sinking into his shoulder, piercing far enough to make marrow seep out. Sans screamed and trashed, suddenly waking from his trance, pushing off the man with new found strength and running.

He ran and ran, past other humans, past other monsters. Some got attacked by those things, but Sans kept running. He had to find Papyrus. He couldn’t just leave him in this madness.

People everywhere were pounding against doors and windows, unable to break through or leave this building. Sans could see a few armed humans outside as he ran past the windows, not knowing where he wanted to run. Were could Papyrus be.

She stumbled, smacking face first into something solid and bumpy, just to be pulled closer by two long arms after a moment. He looked up to see the fear-stricken face of his brother before he was hoisted up and carried away. His brother was fast with his long legs if he decided to actually run.

It took them hours, but they finally found a safe spot, barricading themselves in the basement, in a small room with no windows and only one door until all was over and they could finally leave. Sans was feeling tired, more tired then he had ever felt before, the bite on his arm burning and hurting like hell. And he started to get hungry.

Maybe…maybe a small bite, a small nibble would help with that. Papy wouldn’t mind, right?


	7. Day 6 - UF Papyrus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit more violent than just plain spooky.

Day 6- Monsters have a peculiar way of hanging around after death until they can move on. What they have to do for that isn’t always pretty.

Papyrus never imagined he would lose a battle like this. And he never expected what came afterward. He got cornered by a mob of monsters, all out or revenge, all of them attacking him from all sides. 

He managed to block some damage, even knock two of them out, but they attacked him from all sides, he wasn’t able to block even half of it, and he felt his HP drop. He felt it drop down to one. And then even that one was gone and he felt himself dissolve, his head lingering a few moments longer, lamenting that after all the hard work he put into the guard, trying to make killing a last resort, instead of a thing monsters usually did. 

At least the guard was still in good hands with Undyne.

And then he was gone.

Papyrus opened his eye sockets without feeling them. He couldn’t feel any part of his body, not his arms, legs, face or ribcage. But somehow he could move, somehow he was there, but not really. He saw himself, a faint outline of his body as he looked down. Transparent, not really there, blurred and grey.

The world around him had changed too. Everything was just made up out of white outlines on a black background. Everything was leaving blurred trails when it moved. And there was no sound, none at all.

He didn’t know where he was, who he was or what he was doing here. The only thing he knew was what he had to do. He didn’t know why or how, but he knew he had to do it, no matter what.

He knew he had a brother. He didn’t know him at all, he didn’ know his name, or how he looked, he just knew how to find him. He knew somebody was coming to kill him. Not why or when, but he knew he had to stop them. He started wandering through the dark landscape, past houses he didn’t recognize and faces he never met until he finally found him.

His brother was standing in a clearing in the woods, other monsters circled around him, throwing attacks at him while he dodged them. Papyrus didn’t know why he did it, but he stood behind his brother, whose name he maybe never knew or just forgot, and let himself pour inside him. 

Suddenly he was in control. He didn’t know how to use magic attacks, he didn’t know anything, except for the fact that he had to protect his brother, here and now.

He jumped at the first attacker, clawing his eyes out, pure animosity without any thought or fear. He ripped at the monster’s fur, clawing down his face, scratching his throat with sharp phalanges until he was able to dig his fingers in there, ripping it to the side, blood, warm and thick, pouring down his arms as he tore the monster apart. Dust rained down on him, and he turned around.

The rest stood there, frozen in fear. Violence was nothing new in the Underground, but this was something else. This had not a piece of mercy in it, not a whisp. It was death, painful and merciless death.

Papyrus jerked his brother’s body towards the next attacker who was standing there, frozen in shock, impaling him on his brother’s hand, showing the arm in deeper and deeper until it came out on the other side. The monsters exploded into a dust cloud, the powder falling in his brother eyesockets, covering the inside of his skull. Papyrus didn’t feel anything of it, he only heard a faint scream, his brother’s body twitching against Papyrus movements for a few moments.

He turned to the last three, one turning and running, but Papyrus was faster. He felt his brother’s legs burn with the extortion, but he himself didn’t feel anything. So he ran faster. He jumped at the attackers back, knocking him out and dragging him back to the other two, before dropping him and umping at the other two, both holding the other in fear.

He knocked their heads against each other, both collapsing on the ground, Papyrus dragging the third one to the pile before rummaging through his brother's jacket.

He didn’t know what he searched for, and he didn’t know what the packet of matched he found actually was. But he could use it. Fur burned very fast.

The last three monsters lit up in flames, waking up to intense pain, screaming and trashing, their fur burning away, their skin melting under the heat, their eyes turning milky before burning away completely. The trashing got fainter and fainter until they finally turned to dust, the powdery cloud extinguishing the leftover flames.

Papyrus was done.

He felt himself remember. Saw the surroundings change, look again how they always did. Saw himself drift out of his brother’s body. Hos brothers blood caked and dust covered, shaking and screaming body. He finally heard his brothers scream, he couldn’t hear them before, couldn’t feel his mouth move. His begging and pleading for this to stop, which turned into nonsensical, hysteric gibberish.

He saw his brother, Sans, collaps into the snow, hugging himself and clawing at his eyes, trying to get the dust out somehow, still screaming, still shaking.

As Papyrus left this world the last thing he felt was regret.


	8. Day 7 - HT Sans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again a bit more violent then just plain spooky

Day 7 - S/O gets mistaken for a newly fallen human. (Prompt-Credit to Anon)

It was a wintery morning, Snow covered everything outside, the sun would rise only hours later and the air was cold and crisp.

Sans sat up in bed, rubbing his bleary eye sockets wondering what day it was. What day was yesterday? It didn’t really matter in the end, but his memory lapses really started to get on his nerves. Well, he could always ask Papyrus, the other had his own memory problems, but they usually managed to remind the other of a thing or another in the end.

Shuffeling downstairs, Sans entered the kitchen, wondering why the house looked so different. Maybe just a trick of the eye, one of them wasn’t properly working anymore, after all. The light in the kitchen was off, Papyrus not awake yet apparently, so Sans decided to grab a bite. 

The fridge was full of food. Something was definitely wrong, he couldn’t remember ever seeing that much different food in their fridge. Usually, it was only filled with Papyrus special spaghetti, long ago with real spaghetti and sometimes chips. Even confused and slightly put off, Sans couldn’t just leave that food. Even if it was just a hallucination, he had to eat some of it, he didn’t know when he would see that much food at once ever again.

Before he could even empty one pack of chocolate cookies, the first thing his eyes fell onto, he heard soft steps behind him. Too soft for his brothers fast and energetic steps.

He saw a human, squinting their eyes as they entered the kitchen. He didn’t think, didn’t wait, didn’t stop. he just jumped them, grabbing the first thing off the counter he could reach and smashing their skull in, dragging their body to the floor, both of them landing on the tiles hard.

He didn’t give them time to even fight back, to regain their senses, he kept hitting their face with the little metal pot, caving in their skull as blood run out of the opening wound. Their eyes bulged out with every hit, their mouth contouring into a grimace, a gurgling sound leaving it as spit and blood dripped down their chin.

Their nose pointed inwardly after Sans dropped the pot with a clank, falling backwards, panting hard. The gurgling stopped minutes ago, but he couldn’t. Couldn’t stop pounding, hitting, like in a trance. He lay on the floor, taking deep, ragged breaths. Something about this felt wrong, something was wrong. But he didn’t know, couldn’t remember what was wrong.

Finally, he got up, grabbing a large knife out of the knife block and went to work on the body. Chopping of the limbs, cutting trough tendrils, and muscles, splintering pieces of the bone in the process. He cut where two bones meet each other, unable to cut through bone with this knife, but able to cut and rip the limbs into pieces where the bones where only connected trough soft tendrils, skin and muscles.

Blood was pooling on the floor, soaking into his clothes. He ripped out the organs with his bare hands, soaking himself in blood and bile up to his elbows. He scalped their head, cutting through the skin with the tip of his knife, then directing the blade below the skin, slowly peeling it off the skull together with the hair. Everything could be used for food. He placed everything in different piles, meat and bones on ones, hair and organ on the other. Papyrus would take care of the cooking and cleaning like he always did.

Sans was tired, dragging his bloodsoaked form upstairs, his slipers making wet souds when conecting with the floor, leaving puddles on the carpet. Sans passed a window, sudden light dragging his attention outside. He saw the sun rise and illuminate the surface.

He remembered.

He screamed.


	9. Day 7 - UF Papyrus

Day 7 - S/O gets mistaken for a newly fallen human. (Prompt-Credit to Anon) 

Papyrus was very proud of his usually very good memory and how he managed to resolve conflicts without killing a single monster or human. But today was different.

Papyrus woke up with a headache, on the floor of his shed. He held his head, feeling dried marrow and a new crack in his skull. Hu, he wondered what happened, his face grimacing with pain as he got up, the motion only aggravating the ache in his head.

He walked out of the shed, the one he built specifically for captured humans. he saw a human right in front of him. He felt the crack on his head again. His eyes lit up with magic as he turned the human blue, pinning them to the ground with more force than necessary. 

They yelped as they collided with the ground, sending snow and earth flying in the air. He grabbed them by their leg, dragging them inside the shed and throwing them hard against the wall. They yelped again, finally finding their voice again, suddenly pleading with him. But not how he expected them too. They pleaded him to just go back inside, to talk this over, they apologized for whatever they did that made him so angry at them.

He didn’t listen, cuffing them to the wall, bruising their ankles and wrists in the process, before putting another metal cuff around their neck, chocking them long enough to stop their begging.

He walked back into his house, still nursing his aching head, running into his brother on the way. Even with the pain, Papyrus was too excited about his captured human, he would go down in history, he would be even more feared than he already was. But his brother’s words sent a shiver down his spine.

“uhm…you’re saying ya locked up yar doll?” He…he did knew you after all.


	10. Day 8 - UF Papyrus

Day 8 - “You really shouldn’t go after me. You won’t like what you see.”

“You really shouldn’t go after me. You won’t like what you see”, Papyrus had his back turned to you, arms crossed in the dimly illuminated room. 

You tried following him on one of his patrols, you heard so much about him trying to change the Underground, trying to make killing a rarely used option for solving conflicts. And you wanted to see that for yourself. Of course, he didn’t let you go with him, after all, it’s serious work. And dangerous work.

But you couldn’t resist, sneaking out after him, following him through the woods…and being promptly spotted by no other then Papyrus himself. Of course, he heard your steps, the cracking of twigs, the crunch of snow. 

He brought you home, depositing you on the couch, without turning on the light, without meeting your eyes. He is disappointed at you. He told you so many times how dangerous it is to just go out by yourself. Especially this late. he told you so often you couldn’t come with him, making you promise that you won’t follow him to work.

You are a bit disappointed by yourself, but that doesn’t stop you to climb out the window, minutes after Papyrus left. You follow him again, you heard Sans yelling down for him to bring some chisps from that one store from New Home. No snow, no crunching, no twigs, no snapping, soft shoes, no footsteps.

You followed him through the crowds in New Home, able to hide in the masses, your face covered by a scarf and hood. You see him talk to different people, drag two fighting teenagers away from each other, photograph some filthy graffiti. You wonder why he didn’t let you tag along, it doesn’t seem that dangerous.

Suddenly you see how elderly women get’s dragged into an alley by somebody covering their face with a large brimmed hat. Nobody cares. Except for Papyrus. You see him sprint towards the alley, run around the corner. You run oo, following him, peeking around the corner, still hiding, still in safe distance.

The old women, a Plant Monster, is holding bullet attacks over her head, aiming at Papyrus. The Monster with the hat, you can now see that it’s a Bird Monster has Feather bullets hovering around them, the sharp ends aimed at Papyrus. There are 3 other monsters in the background, all holding magical attacks, all aimed at Papyrus.

You see Papyrus dodge, block the attacks. You see him get hit, but not hit back. You try to get help from passersby, but nobody cares, all just pushing past you as you stand in front of them, you ran across the street, along the street, try to drag somebody, anybody with you. But nobody listens. Nobody comes with you,

You ran back to the alley, determined to help him, determined to do something. You arrive to a battlefield.

The three monsters in the back are lying on the ground, wounded but alive. The two others are gone. There is dust on the floor, on the trashcan on the walls. There is red marrow on the floor, splashes on the walls, splashes on the piles of dust. Papyrus is standing in the middle of the alley, covered in dust, clothes torn and sticky with marrow. 

But that one thing that sticks out to you the most is the Bird Monster with the hat, kneeling on the floor, dazed and shaking. And then they scream in pain, hunch over and… explode to dust. Like hitting an open sack of flour. You can only stare in shock as the fine powder rains down on the alley, on the three monsters and on Papyrus.

Papyrus is hunched over, trying to stay up straight when you ran towards him, surprised and angry that you followed him, but trying to seem better then he actually is. Trying not to make you worry. 

He collapses into your arms only moments later. Ha, he is a bad liar. You are glad you didn’t listen to him, you are glad you are there to drag him home to safety. But a part of you wished you had listened to him. The picture of that bird monster turned to dust just won’t leave your head, the sound, the smell, the fine dust tickling your nose as you breathe it in. And you don’t think it ever will.


	11. Day 8 - UT Grillby

Day 8 - “You really shouldn’t go after me. You won’t like what you see.” 

Grillby was a quiet man, gentle and warm. Well, it wasn’t too hard to be warm when you were made out of fire after all. But you have never seen him hurt even a fly, you barely saw him get angry, and even then he was just mildly irritated, like that one time Sans tried to order 50 burgers and put them all on his tab.

You really enjoyed spending time with him..well, you did most o the time. Right now wasn’t one of those.

You were both sitting on the floor of a small cell somewhere in the cellar of a building you both were dragged in now hours ago. You could hear screams and pleads, monsters and humans begging for their lives. 

You didn’t know what this place was exactly, you only heard bits and pieces. Trying to harvest the monsters magic, trying to understand the humans that willingly befriended those monsters. 

Grillby was getting warmer and warmer next to you, for the first time, you could see him truly mad. He had started conjuring up magical attacks every few minutes, his flames changing color with time. By now he was almost completely white, having moved to the other side of the cell to not burn you, but you were sweating from his heat even at this distance.

He conjured another attack, a compressed ball of raw, hot energy. He got up, not looking at you. “You really shouldn’t go after me. You won’t like what you see”, you tried calling after him, but he didn’t hear you anymore, melting the doors lock with sheer touch, kicking open the door, but closing it before you had the chance to look trough. Not locking it. Leaving you a chance to escape. He didn’t know if he was coming back.

You got up to follow him, running up to the door, but pausing as hot air came through the gap beneath it. You heard screams, human screams, you heard flames roar, you felt the heat through the thick, metal door. You couldn’t take it any longer, opening it just a bit, peeking through. You saw only flames.

Flames, humans in white lab coats burn to a crisp, their clothes gone before they even started screaming, their skin melting like wax, their bodies spilling onto the floor, just heaps of molten flesh and piles of burned bones.

You saw what Grillby was truly able to do. The destruction behind his gentle flames. But you weren’t afraid of him.

Because you saw the captured monsters and humans, safe and unharmed, huddling between the flames.


	12. Day 9 - HT Toriel

Day 9 - There is a house on the block nobody has ever lived in, and nobody ever went to. You decide to take a peek. 

A few years after moving to the surface, Toriel started to notice that one house on her block. It was only a few meters down the street, but her gaze never wandered in that direction. Until now.

The house looked like a normal house, clean, tidy, simple. But no matter at which time or from which angle you looked at it, it somehow stayed in the shadows. The windows were dark at all time, seemingly sucking in al the light like a black hole. And something generally felt off about it. It was a very strange house, to strange to not be noticed for such a long time.

She never saw anybody enter or leave, nobody even looking at it. It seemed like the entire town was ignoring this house, and she was sure she was like all those others only days ago, not looking or noticing the house.

Toriel wasn’t easily scared, she spent years, decades in isolation, and some more in what felt worse than hell. But this house was sending shivers down her spine. That, of course, couldn’t stand, she was a grown woman, and she was getting tired of having something terrifying close to her at all times. She really had enough of that. So she decided to take a look herself and tell whoever lived there her strong opinion.

She smoothed out her dress with her paws, knocking on the door firmly and waited. And waited. And waited. But nobody came.

Right as she was about to turn around and head back home, as the door suddenly swung open, revealing a dark hallway. 

The house was a lot less tidy on the inside than on the outside. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, spiderwebs, quiet noises in the walls. As Toriel stepped inside, it felt to her as if she was stepping into the Ruins Underground again. She felt sick, it was like all those claustrophobic, lonely days. When she stopped caring for the Ruins, the dust and dirt accumulating over the years, the spiders webbing their webs over all walls and ceilings.

Toriel turned around, but the door was gone. The hallway was behind her somehow now, in front of her a wall with an empty picture frame. Toriel huffed angrily, whoever thought it was a good idea to mess with her would a few fireballs up their ass in no time.

It didn’t take her long to find somebody, a woman, dressed in black, a black veil over her eyes. A man, dressed in black, with a black hat, it’s brim covering his face. The stood there, unmoving. Then the sound started.

A low hum, slowly working itself up to a high pitch emitted from them, their shadows turning into tendrils, their faces uncovering, revealing black holes with razor-sharp teeth. They moved closer and closer, the high pitched shriek growing louder with each step.

Toriel stood there, not moving, looking back at the nightmare before her. She started shaking, the black holes on the creatures faces contorting, making them seem almost as if they were smiling. But that smile didn’t last long.

A chuckling, turning into a laugh came from Toriels mouth. She looked at the creatures in front of her with pity in her eyes, before throwing a cascade of fireballs at them. She had lived her own personal nightmare for years and years, she lost so many she held dear, still dreaming about it, she was slowly starving for so long, she saw the monsters in the ruins transform to something far worse over time then these creatures. She wasn’t afraid. But she was starting to lose her patience.

She slowly burned them alive, waiting for them to stop this charade and open the way outside again, leaving without another look inside.

She dreamed about that day, but not about the creatures, the sound, the shadowy tendrills. She deramed about the thing that actually scared her, the dusty, lonely hallway, like the place she called home for so many isolated years.


	13. Day 9 - US Papyrus

Day 9 - There is a house on the block nobody has ever lived in, and nobody ever went to. You decide to take a peek. 

Papyrus loved that old, creaky looking house. It was what a lot of neighbors would call an eyesore, something that made them turn up their nose every time they walked past it. But that just made him like it even more. A building that managed to annoy so many people and look interesting while doing so, count him in.

But one thing did seem odd to him. He was an observant skeleton, even though he often didn’t bother to pay much attention to things. And he did pay attention to the house, for days and weeks, never seeing anybody enter or leave. Never seen anybody through the gaps in the thick curtains. No animals, no humans, no monsters. Not even spider webs. Only dust and dead plants.

So being a curious one, Papyrus decided to take a look himself. He usually spends his afternoons laying on the couch, but hey, he could do that later. And his brother wouldn’t mind him actually moving his bones for ones.

Papyrus pushed open the slightly ajar door with a creek. The house inside was in shambles, as it was outside. Dirty, dusty, broken. Splintered wood, pieces of furniture, glass shards and plaster. Spooky. Papyrus coughed as he breathed in a mouthful of dusty, humid, disgusting air, wondering how these things kept affecting him without any lungs.

But the house was as empty as it looked from the front lawn, and from across the street. Papyrus sighed a bit disappointed, walking through the rooms, each one barely resembling what it once was. A living room, a kitchen, maybe a small library? Only bits and pieces showed how they looked so many years ago. 

With each passing room, Papyrus started noticing something odd. Odder then never seeing anybody enter or leave. Yes, everything was broken, moldy, rotten away. But everything was still in its place. Alright, a few pieces had tumbled over, some things had rotten away to nothing. But nothing has been stolen. Valuable looking candleholders, forks, and knives out of silver, furniture that was slightly rotten, but still usable. 

Papyrus knew humans. Not all of course, but enough. And he knew how a lot of them loved to steal things that they deemed as something without an owner. Why had nobody taken anything for all those years it has been lying around here.

And that’s when he started to see the first shadow. Just a movement from the corner of his eye, just a motion, just a small flickering. But definitely there. He felt his bones rattle slightly, jumping as he saw another, now on the other side of the room. A dark, kind of see trough blob, like a thick, black mist.

Papyrus did what every brave skeleton monster would do in that situation. He ran like hell, slamming the door behind him, not stopping until he was safe and sound in his room, startling Sans on his way upstairs.

He didn’t sleep well that night, he was back in the house, back with those shadowy things. They weren’t doing much, just standing around him, not moving, not making a sound. Papyrus woke up in cold sweat, finding himself on the stairs in the middle of a step. He tumbled down the rest, waking up the entire house in the process. “hu, guess I was feeling hungry and decided to get some food in my sleep, after all, I’m not even skin and bones anymore, just the bones”, a terrible joke to lighten the mood and distract his brother from what was wrong.

The day was spent in a haze, he found himself walking towards the house, without noticing, not remembering why he was going there. And after another nightmare the next night, finding himself outside on the front lawn after waking up, he saw them again. But this time, they weren’t blobs anymore.

Humans. All of them. See trough like ghosts, but definitely something else. Misty, dark, splashes of white like stars that were like holes when you looked closer. They just stood there like before, closer, and now that they had faces he could see them watching him. Silently, quietly, never blinking.

He woke up on the porch of the house that night.

Papyrus stopped sleeping, something wanted him back in the house, something tried to drag him back in, something made those…those things follow him wherever he went. They started moving now, walking around him at a distance, looking at him with an expression he couldn’t quite place. They still made no noise.

After a few days, Sans started prodding him about his weird behavior. He wasn’t sleeping, he lost his appetite, he didn’t go outside, afraid he would somehow end up at the house again. Papyrus was so tired, so afraid, so confused about what was going on. And Sans just wouldn’t stop talking, wouldn’t stop asking him. He snapped, screaming at him to leave him alone, to mind his own business, storming to his room and looking himself.

“PAPYRUS? PAPYRUS, I’m Sorry. I didn’t want to upset you. Please come out there. I’m sorry.”, Sans voice was quiet, not the excited shout he usually talked in. Papyrus screamed at him to leave, to let him be. Then it was quiet again.

“I’m sorry.”

At first, Papyrus thought it was Sans again, ready to snap at his older brother again. But this wasn’t his voice. And it didn’t come from the door. He stared at one of the shadows. It moved its mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

Papyrus passed out.

He wasn’t himself anymore when he woke up, standing in that damn house, all doors and windows gone, everything dimly lit, almost dark, his own body only half there, only a memory, only a shadow. He could now place the expression on those things faces. Pity. They knew what was coming for him. They knew he would end up like they did. They felt sorry for him, watching him slowly become one of them.

He just wished he could tell Sans how sorry he was for snapping at him.


	14. Day 10 - UF Sans

Day 10 - Little children aren’t always as innocent and friendly as they seem.

Sans didn’t mind children. He wasn’t too fond of them, but as long as they stayed out of his way he didn’t really care. At least he used not to mind kids he thought, lying in a puddle of his own marrow in the snow, seeing his fingers already begin to dust.

He just wanted to get home, slightly tipsy from a late night at Grillbys, annoying the hell and back out of everybody in the bar before leaving with a satisfied feeling. 

Almost home, more than half the way already behind him, he suddenly stumbled over something in the snow, tumbling to the ground, earth, twigs, and ice making their way inside his skull and under his clothes. Ah, wonderful, that is truly the best way to end a day. 

He got up again, shaking the wet sludge out of his head as he looked at what he actually stumbled over. It was a kid.

That weird, little, bratty monster kid without arms, who kept faceplanting into the snow, sometimes just staying there until somebody stumbled over them just to mess with people. Man, he would whoop this kids ass if he could. But he opted for just scaring the little shit away.

“ey, ya little shit. better run before i turn you into fertilizer”, he glared at them, bulking up his jacket with his hands in his pockets, baring his sharp fangs. And the kid started crying.

“woah, woah, wait! Uh…maybe chill out, caus you know…the snow..oh fuck why are you crying now stop that…!”, Sans was completely taken aback. Nobody cried in public like that, not even children. It just wasn’t something you did here Underground. But here was that bratty, annoying kid, crying like a newborn.

Sans hands hovered in front of the kid awkwardly, he really had no idea what to do. Papyrus would definitely get pissed at him if he just left a citizen in need, after all, he was a sentry, it was his job to help..well more or less.

It took some poking and prodding, but he finally got the kid to talk to him properly, “Some…some assholes just s-…showed me”, they were still hiccupping with every word, Sans patting them on the back maybe a tad to hard, “a-..and they sto-…ole my gold. I- .. I need it, my mom gave it to me- ..e..e..eee!” Ugh, so now he had to track down some thieve while he was still buzzed from the drinks and tired from a long day. Wonderfull.

Sans walked in the direction the kid pointed him, the little brat high on his tail even after he shooed him away repeatedly. He had his defenses up, looking around for any clues of an attacker as…

Crunch

Sans fell to the floor, screaming in pain, looking around in confusion. What happened, who attacked him? There was nobody but him and the kid and..his eyes fell on his legs, his eyes fell on his feet. His eye light shuddered and went out. But his gaze stayed glued to his feet, which were still standing in the snow, enclosed in a beartrap. His legs, on the other hand, weren’t standing anymore, a few centimeters away from the feet that were supposed to be attached to them.

Sans couldn’t even scream, the pain so intense, the shock so sudden, he went completely numb, not even bothering to check his HP, not even wondering how much was still left, his high defenses able to protect his life, but unable to keep his HP stable.

He just stared, not even looking up as that fucking brat laughed at him, rummaging through his pockets before running off with the gold he still had on him.

He just laid down in the snow, looking up at the ceiling above him, lying in a puddle of his own marrow in the snow, seeing his fingers already begin to dust.


	15. Day 11 - US Sans

Day 11 - Better bad off, then arm off.

Sometimes pranks went wrong. Sometimes pranks made your trip and hit your head, or drop something made out of glass. Sometimes pranks scared you so much you jumped back in fear, only to hit against the cupboard, breaking the china inside.

But sometimes pranks went really wrong, and somebody you were close to got hurt in a way you could never undo.

Sans wrung out his bandana, angry muttering under his breath. Papyrus tricked him again with one of his stupid pranks, placing a bucket of water over the front door. Sans was really starting to get annoyed at all those pranks, every day, sometimes even more than once each day. He wasn’t too bad off when it came to his brother usually, the taller was nice, caring, friendly. 

But man was he bad off when it came to his brother's sense of humor. All those terrible puns and pranks. Somebody really should teach him a lesson. Sans grin devilishly to himself, yes, that sounded like a pretty good thing to do. Now it was his turn.

Dusting off his hands, Sans looked at the little, but long mount of snow in front of him. He wasn’t very good at pranking, he tried, and he enjoyed it. But damn was he bad. But this time, yeah, this was going to be awesome. He was sure of it.

He heard steps behind himself, smiling as he recognized them as coming from Papyrus slow, dragging feet. He knew his brother’s patrol route, and he knew he was coming this way, at this time. Giggling, Sans hid in the bushes, watching his come into view. Sans huffed, of course, he was smoking again. Yes, he was a grown skeleton who could make his own decision, but it still rubbed Sans the wrong way.

Papyrus took a last drag of his cigarette before he threw the stub away and stepping right onto Sans little prank trap. 

Instantly a few fans turned on, blowing away the snow of an icy path Sans made this morning., Papyrus started sliding the moment he stepped on it, letting out a high pitched yelp, going right for the pile of cushions Sans laid out at the end of the ice.

Sadly, he didn’t land in there, sailing right over it and flying over one of the many cliffs the forest of Snowdin had.

Sans jumped up in terror, screaming his brother’s name as he ran in the direction he saw his brother disappear, looking over the cliff, wishing with everything he had to see his brother there and not a pile of dust.

To his misery, he got both. His brother was lying on his back, eye lights flickering, moaning in pain. His shirt was flat were his left arm was supposed to be, some grey powder falling out of the end of the sleeve.


	16. Day 12 - UT Asgore

Day 12 - Your new neighbor never leaves his house at daylight. Then you notice a faint smell of decay.

Asgore liked his new house on the surface. It was a few miles away from the nearest town, on a big field he was slowly turning into a giant, blooming garden. There were two other houses, all standing several yards away from each other, Asgores being the one on the utmost right, while an empty one was on the utmost left, almost in the nearby forest. The one in the middle has been empty not long ago too, most residents only living in this houses for a short time, everything being too far away to be comfortably accessed by foot or car.

Asgore liked the solitude, the quiet. He was used to loneliness, but the often visits of his friends and family made it a pleasant and of loneliness here on the surface. His neighbors, usually being friendly and open, often invited him over for cake, while he, in turn, invited them for tea. But he hadn’t had the chance to do the same with his newest, and now only, neighbor.

He remembered waking up late at night to the sound of scraping, the sound of car tires and engines. He saw furniture being carried into his neighbor’s house. Asgore did wonder why somebody would move so late at night. Well, maybe his new neighbor lived far away, and traffic here on the surface was something neither humans nor monsters found pleasant or fast.

He saw his new neighbor from far away, only a dark shape moving through the garden, rummaging in the shed, carrying things inside and the shed. carry some things out again. Asgore went to bed.

Asgore decided to introduce himself the next morning, the mysterious stranger who lived next to him now had a face. Brown hair, not light but also not dark, pale but still somehow healthy looking. Very normal human being, even though their sense of fashion was…peculiar.

A large brimmed hat, sunglasses, a turtleneck, long pants, gloves, and shoes. And all that inside. The inside of the house was a tad strange too, all windows were covered by thick curtains, it was pitch black, except for the few stray candles illuminating some surfaces.

Asgore greeted them friendly, receiving a short, but polite hello. They weren’t stepping outside, not opening the door fa, only peaking outside through a small gap. Asgore and, how his new neighbor introduced themself, Max, exchanged a few pleasantries, before parting ways again.

Asgore didn’t see his neighbor very often afterward. He saw them shuffling outside at night a few times, often heading for the woods, or rummaging in the shed in their garden. He brought tea and biscuits over a few times and sometimes woke up to a little basket, filled with pastries the next day.

Things were going well, his neighbor wasn’t loud, Asgore himself wasn’t either, no complaints from both sides they lived next to each other for weeks and months. 

At least until the smell became too strong to ignore.

It was..rancid at best. Rotten. Strong and repulsing. The kind of smell that made families move to a different place and even the sweetest grandmas swear like sailors. And it was getting very penetrant, worse with each day.

Sighing, Asgore made his way back home. It was the third time he went over to Max, knocking on their door, trying to ask them about the smell that was wafting over to his house. The first time he mentioned it, Max locked themself up in their house. They didn’t leave at night anymore. They didn’t leave at day either. They didn’t open when Asgore brought over tea and left no baskets in front of his doorstep any longer.

Asgore wasn’t one to snoop in other peoples things. But the smell was getting worser and worser, and he had to think of his family and friend coming to visit him in only a few days. He sighed, walking through his yard, into his neighbors. No fence separated their yards, Asgore often taking care of all the gardens while nobody lived in the houses next to his. He looked through the windows, seeing Max, sitting in an armchair, watching TV through a small gap in the curtains.

Quietly, so he wouldn’t draw attention to himself, Asgore walked through the yard, looking for any dead animals or something else that would explain the terrible smell.

He couldn’t find anything, just following the smell to were it was the worst. The shed. That close to the small, wooden building, Asgore could hear flies, swarms of flies, buzzing loudly inside, some coming trough the sligthly parted door, some others entering.

Asgore had his mouth and nose covered by his shirt collar, coughing and retching every time he breathed in that terrible smell. He took one, deep breath, preparing himself for what was waiting inside, pushing the door open.

He expected a lot of things, he had seen enough in his lifetime to fuel his imagination. A dead animal that got trapped in the shed, piles of dead animals his neighbor hunted in the forest. Humans his neighbor killed and deposited inside. But none of them were, his neighbor, who he just saw sitting inside the house, death, rotten, in a puddle of dried blood on the floor, a heavy piece of furniture covering half their body, squishing it flat.

“You should come inside. We..we have to talk”, Asgore turned around, seeing his neighbor standing in the back door, still dressed in layers, and layers of clothes.

There were a lot of reasons to mistrust them, to just go back home, to call the police, to move to somewhere far away immediately. There were a lot of reasons not to go inside, sit down with a warm tea on the comfortable, but the dusty sofa, and listen to his new neighbor. But Asgore still did the later, still decided to trust them, to listen to them.

Max moved from a far away city, no friends, no family, just wanting a quiet life in their old years, just wanting to enjoy walks in the forest, warm evenings in front of the fireplace. But they were already quite old, moving heavy furniture wasn’t an easy task for them, the heavy wardrobe was too much. They somehow managed to drag it into the shed, not having an empty space for it inside the house. It toppled over, and they woke up inside the shed the next morning, their body still lying under the furniture. 

Trying to walk through the sun, they started fading, barely making it inside, covering every window with curtains, covering every bit of bare skin with clothes. They couldn’t leave at day, taking the walks in the forest at night, bonding with their new neighbor, hoping they still could get some more time. Some more life to enjoy. After the smell became stronger, they knew their body would soon be discovered. They tried hiding in their house, trying to buy themself some more time.

But now they knew it was too late. They couldn’t spend all their life living in this empty house, unable to leave at day. Hell, they couldn’t even buy groceries.

They placed a strangely warm, strangely alive hand on Asgore large paw. “I know it is a lot to ask, especially after I cause you so much trouble. But could you take care of my body? I just want to know it in good hands, that I will get a proper furniral.”

Asgore nodded slowly, promising he would look after everything Max left behind. He would make sure their body wouldn’t be left to rot in that small, cramped shed. Max smiled, looking outside through a gap in the curtains, sighing defeated, but content.

The last thing Asgore saw of his neighbor, was them walking towards the woods, humming a soft melody, fading with each step.


	17. Day 13 - UT Sans

Day 13 - Somebody in your apartment complex is attacking the residents. Time to move. Sadly the doors won’t budge.

Being home alone wasn’t to bad usually. Sans liked the quiet evenings he could spend sitting on the couch, drowsily watching tv. But when the screams started, things turned a lot less relaxed.

The screams started a few floors upwards, still far away and quiet, Sans looking up, eye sockets slightly widened. That didn’t sound like somebody was just having a fight. It didn’t even sound angry. It sounded like people who were scared to death.

Papyrus was at Undynes, Sans shooting him a quick text to stay there, and not come home until he told him otherwise, before throwing some things in a backpack, and making his way outside into the hallway.

The screams were now closer, Sans hurrying up his usually dragging, slow steps until he was almost sprinting to the elevator. Just to find it not responding, no matter how often he pressed the button. He was just glad he didn’t live to high up, running down the stairs, already huffing and out of breath. Man he was really not made for any kind of movement.

Finally arriving at the ground floor, Sans leaned against a wall, gasping for breath. To many stairs, way to many. And way to short legs. The screams were still as loud as before, whatever was happening, it was now on a lower floor, moving down as Sans moved himself.

Then the sounds moved another floor and Sans could hear loud footsteps and some kind of…snarling? Heavy breathing, growling, in-between the screams, slowly moving down floors, down and down.

Nope.

Sans bailed for the exit. He didn’t wanted to know what was going on, he didn’t care who was snarling, who was screaming and why. He just wanted out and leave.

Only, the doors didn’t wanted to budge. Well, shit.

The sounds moved farther down, only one floor above him now. No way to flee. No windows on this floor, no cellar, no backdoor. Sans just stood there and listened. The screams were now less often, not a lot of people lived on the second floor, not a loot of people who could scream. The upper floors were completely quiet now, only silence.

That close he could hear more then just the screams and the snarls and the heavy breathing. He could hear thumps after the screams, dragging, ripping, chewing.

Hahaha………no. Now he really didn’t care to find out what was happening above him. He teleported with an uncomfortable grin, just wanting to get out, or at least he tried. Bouncing back onto the carpet of the hallway, he looked up at the ceiling, silently screaming in his head. He couldn’t leave, he couldn’t flee, and he definitely couldn’t fight, he could dodge, yes, but that was about it. Man, he never had luck on Friday the 13th, did he?

He heard steps on the stairs, coming down, and lower and nearer. Sans stood there, frozen, eyes glued to the door of the staircase. The steps stopped, the door opening slowly and revealing a large creature, covered in still dripping blood from head to toe, pieces of skin and hair sticking to it’s mouth and long, jagged claws.

It ran towards him instantly, Sans barely dodging, landing on his hands in knees, after loosing his balance. Before he had time to get up, those long claws were wrapped around him like ropes, the thing shaking him violently in all directions, making him lose his backpack, his phone and his lunch.

As Sans was dragged away, he heard his phone buzz, the default ringtone filling the hallway. He would really like to hear his brothers voice one more time.


	18. Day 14 - UT Grillby

Day 14 - “I don’t trust them.”

As a bartender, Grillby often listened to his costumers complaints. Even if he didn’t knew them, no matter if human or monster, he always had an ear to lend. And in his years he heard a few interesting things, standing at his bar, polishing the glasses and just listening.

“I don’t trust them”, one of his patrons, a punky Hamster monster named Gerry, said for the fifth time now since he entered. Grillby served him his usual, but hung around next to him, wiping down the counter, polishing the glasses, sorting trough his liquor bottles. Waiting for Gerry to speak up about his troubles, like he always did.

“I don’t trust them, I just know they are up to something”, Gerry took another swig of his drink, locking eyes with Grillby as he slammed down his glass on the counter, “Ey, Grillz, you know that guy, who’s house sitting for the Stone family? He’s such a weirdo, I just don’t trust him, but I never have time to check up on their house, so I dunno what he’s up to in there.”

Grillby nodded, yes he heard some monster from New Home was house sitting for the Stones while they are visiting family in Waterfall. “Just appeared out of nowhere, offering to take care of their place. Don’t think he’s up to anything bad, but you know me, I just don’t trust every monster I see, even though some seem to do that.”

Grillby nodded again, it was kind of strange for somebody nobody town knew, to just appear and offer to look after the familys house, even though they hand’t even asked any of their friends yet. But monsters were generally friendly, nice, and even though most had their flaws and problems, nobody ever did any real harm. Even Jerry, who could be annoying like nobody else, had his good sides. 

“Ey, I just thought, you live just past their house, don’t you Grillz.”, Grill by nodded again, now slightly hesitantly, “How ‘bout you check on their house?” Grill by sighed, thinking about it for a few moments. It really was on his way, and just knocking, saying hello and leaving again wouldn’t take too long..Grillby nodded a final time.

After locking his bar and making his way home, Grillby stopped at the small house the family of Stone monsters lived in. He brushed of some stray snow from his coat, knocking sharply with one hand. It was quiet at first, then he heard steps coming closer and closer, the door opening slowly, revealing a gentle looking bird monster. “Hello, how can I help you.”

Grillby was a man of few words, shortly greeting the man and explaining why he decided to stop by, even though he left out the part about not completely trusting the monster infant of him. The bird monster smiled, introducing himself as Berr, inviting Grillby in for tea. Grillby was also a polite man, not wanting to seem rude by declining the offer.

The house seemed fine, everything was clean, all things seemed to be were they belonged, Grillby hand’t been here that often, but it seemed like everything was alright. He took an offered seat, watching Berr walk to the kitchen, heard the sound of a kettle whistle and the warm, hot smell of freshly brewed tea.

Then they sat down and talked. “Mr..Grillby, right? Have you lived here for a long time?”, Berr took a sip from his tea, as did Grillby. Grill by nodded, yes he was born in Snowdin, and he didn’t plan to move away anytime soon. “Then you maybe heard about the disappearances?” Grill by nodded again, hesitantly.

Nobody knew yet if those monsters actually disappeared. It were just a few, some who could also have just got up and moved to a different place. The bear monster that kept hanging around in front of his bar, a fish monster who kept mostly to herself. Nobody knew where they went if they maybe just went to visit relatives or maybe got lost in the woods.

Berr took another sip, so did Grillby, his throat feeling strangely dry, something he never experienced before. He was fire after all. Berr sighed, “Well I hope they will get found soon.” Grill by was feeling dizzy, a weird floating sensation. H took another sip of his tea to cover it up, pretending everything was fine. He also hoped they would be found soon, they weren’t close friends of his, but he wanted to know them save anyway.

Berr finished his tea, sitting down the cup. “No, no, you don’t understand. I want them to be found because of a different reason.” Grillby was so thirsty, his troth feeling raw and dry, dizzy and sick. He drained the last drop of tea, trying to set down the cup, but he just couldn’t focus on the table, it kept duplicating, his vision swimming.

“No, I want them to be found so everybody can see what I did to them.” Grill by had barely time to process the words, the laugh, his feet suddenly carrying him towards the door, but slipping away beneath him, his face suddenly hurting, pressed into the rug.

Now he really mistrusted this guy.


	19. Day 15 - UT Alphys

Day 15 - You receive a message begging you for help. You have never seen the number before. Honestly, you can’t see it at all, it’s just a scrambled mess.

Alphys was hanging on her couch, upside down, watching Anime. Like every day when she was bored and trying to procrastinate work. The beast was about to kiss the protagonist, Alphys eyes glued to the screen, her mouth slightly open. Ohh she shipped them so hard.

Bzz, Bzz.

Allphys groaned, pressing pause as she sat up properly, picking up her phone. Who was writing her now? Was it Undyne? Oh, she really hoped it was Undyne, maybe she even had time to come over and they could watch the anime together, and the kissing scene would be so romantic Undyne would tell her about her secret feelings, which would be the same as hers and they would look each other in the eyes and then smooch! 

Alphys face was beet red, just getting redder with every following, spiraling thought. But no, the number wasn’t Undynes. It wasn’t one she had seen before, it wasn’t even a real number. Just scrambled symbols, vaguely reminding her of something, but to glitched out to properly make sense.

The message itself was ominous, to say the least. “Help me”. No more no less, letters glitching in and out of place. Alphys stared at the message, trying to make sense out of it. Who? What happened? How could she possibly help, she screwed up everything, every time she tried to help. Alphys lowered her head.

Her phone ripped her out of her dark thoughts, buzzing again. And again. Suddenly an avalanche of messages came through all screaming and begging for her attention. “Help me!” “It’s dark!” “I don’t know where I am” “Please” “Please somebody” “Just somebody” “Hear me” “Help me!”

Her phone didn’t stop vibrating, buzzing louder and louder, heating up until Alphys had to drop it to the floor were it short-circuited, screen cracking, smoke rising to the ceiling.

But the buzzing sound didn’t stop. Just growing louder until it was almost deafening. Alphys was feeling like she was getting enveloped by it. Then the buzzing changed to static, the static forming words. “aLpHyS”, Alphys was shaking on the ground now, unable to make any sound, looking in front of her, eyes wide and focused on the darkness that came closer, surrounding her. 

“AlPhYs, WhY….wHy DiDn’T yOu HeLp Me?”, the voice said, her phone starting to buzz and vibrate again, even though it was still fried. “I- I-….I j-just go-..got your messa-..-ge…I I I swear I w-…ant to help you!”

The static sounded confused, then intrigued, a strange form of interest, mixed with anger filling the room. “sEeMs LiKe TiMe Is ReAlLy a StRaNgE tHiNg”, a white face, with one shut eye appeared on in the darkness, which was slowly covering Alphys frozen form. “bUt I iMaGiNeD tHe ThInGs I wOuLd Do To YoU fOr ReFuSiNg To HeLp Me To OfTeN tO jUsT lEaVe NoW….”

And Alphys was swallowed up whole, darkness and static filling the place where once a lab was.


	20. Day 16 - UF Papyrus

Day 16 - Souls can be removed from a body without killing. It’s not a nice experience. 

 

Papyrus woke up. He wondered why he was waking up, after all, he couldn’t remember going to sleep. Or preparing to go to sleep. Goodness sake, he hasn’t even brushed his teeth. 

He cracked open his eye sockets, which felt harder than it usually did, looking around, vision swimming. It was dark. Sterile. Glinting metal. Definitely not his bedroom. A shadowy, scaly, short figure standing next to him. Definitely not his brother. His arms and legs tied to the metal, surgical table he was lying on. Definitely not how he usually slept.

“G-…Good that you are f- finally awake. I was worried I w-.would have to wake you my-..myself.”, Papyrus didn’t recognize that voice, but he didn’t need to know the voice. The only thing he needed to know was that the syringe in her hand, filled with glistering fluid was not a good sign.

The figure stepped closer to him, turning on a surgical light above, blinding Papyrus momentarily, his eyes adjusting to the light fairly quickly, his gaze falling on his captor, a lizard monster. A lizard monster he met before. Alphys, the monster Undyne has been raving about. Who knew she would be the one to turn against Papyrus.

Or maybe not. “I-…I know you are a friend of Undyne, a-…and the Captain of the R-..Royal Guard. It’s r-…really nothing personal. Y-..you are just the perfect test subject.” Test Subject? Oh no. 

Papyrus but all his strength against the metal cuffs, only to receive a nasty, shock, the electricity coursing through his body, setting every cell on fire, making him bit his teeth together sharply. He wouldn’t give in. He wouldn’t scream. He wouldn’t show any emotion, his face like set in stone.

“LET ME GO, AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL GET A FAIR PUNISHMENT, NOT MORE NOT LESS”, Papyrus tried to reason, knowing there won’t be any use in reasoning. But it wasn’t his way to just give up when things seemed bleak, he would still try to his last breath.

“B-…be quiet…p-…please..it..it won’t hurt less..b-…but you need that strength…d-… don’t waste it o-..on speaking.”, Alphys let some fluid trickle out of the syringe, checking it for air bubbles.

Then she jammed it into his femur. Bones, no matter if leg or not leg, were much thicker then skin, and needles weren’t usually made for bones, usually too thin, usually too easy to break to use for something like that. But thick needles, that were something different. Thick, painful, sharp needles, they withstood the hard bone, drilling a hole into Papyrus right leg.

Papyrus bit his teeth together, hard enough to hear them crunch, his hands balled into fists, trying to ignore the pain. Alphys injected the shimmering liquid slowly, sending a burn, up and down his leg adding to the throbbing pain from the injection wound. She pulled out the syringe, chattering away while Papyrus tried to restrain himself from cursing or screaming, his eyes burning with willpower.

“Y-…you know…s-..souls of bossmonsters stay a f-..few moments after their death. Just a s-..short time, but they withstand death for a f-..few moments longer, a f-..ew precious moments you could use to stud-…dy them. S-..sadly not long enough…”, she picked up something from the table, Papyrus unable to turn his head far enough to see it properly, the burning from his leg, slowly filling his entire body, the pain obstructing his thoughts.

“B-…but I think I found a way to change that. A soul only dies, when the b-…body dies. S-..so I just have to get your soul out, without killing you. Just remove it completely, but k-…keep your body alive. A-…and that is what the liquid I just injected you with does”, she grinned in a crooked, shaky way,

”….w-..well, it helps with it, s-..sadly it doesn’t do the whole work. What it doe is faking y-…your death, d-..drawing out your soul.”

But Papyrus wasn’t listening anymore, the burning turning into a freezing, cold sensation, leaving him shaking in his bonds, bone clanking against metal harshly, the repeated trauma slowly bruising his bones, thin cracks and dark spots forming, red, bright marrow seeping out of the wounds.

“O-..oh I didn’t expect such a strong re-…reaction”, Alphys hurried over, fastening the metal cuffs tighter to calm Papyrus thrashing. His eye lights were unfocused, but his self-control still not slipping, his teeth jammed together hard enough, somewhere starting to chip and splinter.

The shivering stopped as fast as it came, leaving Papyrus exhausted, barely unable to move, his body feeling far away, broken and cold. Something glowed in his chest, faintly but there, Alphys scribbling down some notes, taking pictures in excitement. 

She cut open his shirt, Papyrus thinking how sad it was that he had to be wearing his favorite shirt today somewhere in the back of his head, a detached thought unfitting for this situation, but somehow still making its way in his head.

His soul was there, embedded in his ribs part of his body like it was supposed to be, but visible, glowing, vulnerable. Alphys made a disapproving noise. “I-..I hoped it would be easier to g-..get out…”, her hand wandered over the metal table, grabbing a pair of wire cutters. She didn’t look like a lizard with a lot of strength to Papyrus, but she also didn’t look like the kind of person to kidnap him and rip out his soul, so today seemed to be the day he was being proven wrong.

The wire cutter crunched through the first rib, splattering Papyrus face and Alphys arms with crimson, leaking marrow. The pain was intense, shooting up through his neck, into his skull, Papyrus inhaling sharply, barely keeping back the scream that was rising in his throat, only a soft, gargling sound escaping. The humiliation of not being able to hold it back almost hurt him as much as the injury itself.

Alphys cracked the second rib, this time Papyrus kept his posture, using all his willpower to remain calm, quiet and in control. And she kept cutting, breaking the bones with a sharp, slow crunch, pressing down lightly at first, testing each rip, before using all her strength. The blades cut, then the rips started to give away a bit, before cracking and finally breaking, the marrow only dribbling then pouring.

Bone splinters turned to dust, marrow stained the table and the two monsters clothes, the coppery stench of it filling the air. Finally, the soul was free, the leftovers of ribs were still sticking out of it, a soul shaped hole now in Papyrus ribcage. 

He was breathing heavily, his head swimming from pain and blood loss, his body shivering again, but this time not from the injected liquid, his bones rattling softly. He was nauseous, the pain and the strain of keeping himself together wearing on him. 

Alphys was too intrigued with the soul to care much about Papyrus, not even glancing at him, he using that pause to let his face go slack, panting and swallowing hard, glad about the short amount of time he could let his self-control slide, even if just a little bit.

As the haze in his head slowly cleared, he noticed something strange. He could still feel Alphys prodding and poking fingers. He looked to the side, seeing Alphys press into his soul, write done some things in her notes as she kept pressing different spots, sometimes hard, sometimes soft.

It was..weird to say the least. It was almost relaxing, after all the pain he just went through. It was relaxing until Alphys cut off the first, small sliver off soul, making Papyrus buckle up in his restraints, eyes and mouth screwed shut, a whimper still managing to escape his throat.

He fell back heavily, fingers scratching against the metal table in a frenzy, leaving his phalanges bloody and broken. The pain was everywhere, sharp and filling every centimeter of his bones like a hot liquid, nothing he did brought any relieve, his body trying to roll away, move away from whatever was causing the pain, but unable to, ending up just trashing in different directions in panic.

He faintly heard Alphys scribble down something in her notes, saw something leaks out of his soul, felt something of himself slip away as the little piece was placed into a plastic dish, was it crumbled to dust. 

Alphys nodded, taking the soul with her as she left the room. Papyrus didn’t see what she was doing, couldn’t ask, his mouth still shut, his only thought being to keep his posture, to keep his mouth shut, the only thing that made him hold on and not give into the pain.

He heard a machine power up in the next room, he heard Alphys mutter something to herself, a few switches being turned, his soul being surrounded by something cold, floating. Something pointy and sharp touching it, not hard enough to break the surface, but able to keep it in place. He heard the sound of electricity at the same moment he felt his soul being surrounded by static.

What he felt was indescribable, the metal suddenly shooting into his soul, electricity going through it into his soul, a hot sensation filling his body, before it exploded in a pain, harsher then molten metal on an open wound, his body tearing itself apart in a desperate attempt to stop the pain, his arms and legs breaking as they hit the restraints hard enough to crush them after only a few hits.

And Papyrus screams.


	21. Day 17 - SF Sans

Day 17 - You adopt a child that fell into your life. Literally. You do notice them changing slowly, and not for the better.

Sans wasn’t really a mom person. He did help raise his brother, but he was and always will be awkward around kids. He just doesn’t understand them. That’s why he didn’t notice his kid’s strange behavior at first.

Alright, he did notice it. But not knowing anything about kids, especially human kids, his adoptive kid being a human from the surface, he assumed it was just a …kids thing. But when things finally got completely out of hand, he finally understood that it was indeed not normal behavior.

The first thing that went out of hand was the biting. THe kid kept biting everybody, which wasn’t too terrible in the beginning, Sans being a very toothy person himself, and most people who knew him were already used to being bitten by him.

But then the child suddenly lunged at Papyrus, biting hard onto his clavicle, almost breaking it, leaving deep holes from their sharp, little teeth…yes, that was when the biting turned into an actual problem.

The second thing was the weird sleeping schedule the kid had, always sleeping at day, awake at night. Whenever Sans forced them to stay up at day and shooed them to bed at night, they would be drowsy and tired, just walking around like a zombie. This was already bad enough, but after the kid almost ran off a cliff, that’s when Sans decided to let them have their sleeping schedule. At least that way they were awake enough to stay alive.

But the main thing was, he could barely get the kid outside at all unless it was in the dark of night. The Underground was illuminated by some stray sunlight falling in through holes, reflecting in crystals and giving the monsters days and nights.

The few times Sans and his human child went out on some very bright days, the kid collapsed on the floor, screaming, covering their face which was turning red like a sunburn. 

Of course, monster didn’t know about sunburns, but it still didn’t look right, especially with the screams of pain, Sans ushering the child back inside immediately.

The child didn’t speak, didn’t communicate in any way, Sans having to pry any information from them through hours what almost felt like an interrogation.

It took him weeks to find out the child couldn’t eat regular food, could eat monster food, but it barely benefited them. They needed..blood? Sans didn’t understand at first, it only dawned on him when he clumsily cut himself while preparing dinner, his kid leaping up, sucking at his wound like their life depended on it.

Because it did. They ate blood, or in this case, marrow which seemed to be enough.

Things seemed to be alright again, the kid not biting anybody anymore, Papyrus injuries healed and his ego only slightly bruised, the kid staying inside, away from the light, Sans taking them for walks in the night. Until one night they were gone.

Sans searched the nearby woods, while Papyrus took a shortcut over to Undynes place to check the security cameras. The night was dark and silent, except for the light crunching of snow, and some rustling in the bushes, probably animals or smaller monsters.

Sans found them at the same time Papyrus did, the younger watching in shock as his brother walked up to the blood covered child, a dark lump lying behind them in the snow. 

The kid let themselves be embraced, then carried away, Sans looking back to see the lump, no the body, shudder and fall to dust. 

Nobody talked about it ever again.

But it didn’t stop there.


	22. Day 18 - US Sans

Day 18 - Humans and monsters have a lot of similarities. For example, they both scream when being stabbed in the chest.

He just had to get the grocery shopping done, and then he could go home and finally try out that new puzzle game he got for himself. Sans was pretty excited, it was an interesting looking game with a top-hatted gentleman on the cover, and apparently very good.

“Ey you little bastard, give me your fucking money or I slash you right across that creepy face of yours”, Sans jumped away in surprise, so lost in thoughts he didn’t notice the man walking towards him. He was pointing a knife at Sans with a shaking hand, apparently as nervous about the entire situation as Sans himself was.

“HUMAN…I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU ARE..UHM…WHY YOU ARE DOING THIS BUT..UHM…”, Sans started to sweat, his 1 HP was barely nothing, even with his high defense, he could die so easily through this knife.

“I KNOW YOU CAN FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO GET MONEY IF YOU NEED IT…THE MAGNIFICIENT SANS COULD EVEN HElp….help you….”, Sans was backing away with every word, his voice wavering. He had faith in himself, but not enough for something like this.

The man was grinding his teeth, fidgeting with his knife, getting more agitated with every second until he suddenly lunged at Sans, the smaller dodging somehow at first, but the second stab went right in his chest.

Skeletons were lucky to have so much empty space between their ribs and bones, but of course, the knife still nicked a rib good, sending a sharp pain trough Sans chest, making yelp out in pain, falling back on the floor in a failed attempt to dodge.

He felt marrow trickle down his bones and sog through his shirt, saw the man drop the knife and lunged at him, search through his pockets, while Sans tried to calm his breathing and push him off him. 

The man finally found Sans wallet, dropping the skeleton on the ground and running away, Sans turning over on his stomach, one hand on his damaged rib, trying to get up on all fours, his arms shaking from blood loss.

He fell back onto the ground, smacking his head good on the asphalt, hearing somebody yell for an ambulance before he blacked out.


	23. Day 19 - UT Papyrus

Day 19 - That annoying dog is scratching at the door again. Oh wait, it’s sleeping on the chair. But the scratching continues.

Papyrus didn’t necessarily dislike the dog. Well yeah, he disliked his actions, how he always stole his attacks or his food, But otherwise, he didn’t mind that small, white dog too much. His brother liked it, and it somehow always appeared when he was feeling down, even though he chased it from Snowdin to Hell and back again a few times.

Bt the scratching was starting to become annoying.

It started quietly at the front door, slowly moving to the side, tiny scratches over the walls. Papyrus, who was working a puzzle book by the dim light still falling through the window, tried to ignore it, clenching his teeth until he couldn’t take it any longer.

“WOULD YOU STOP THAT YOU MEDDLING CANINE!?”, he raised his voice at the innocent wall and what was behind it, eyes turning googly, as he threw death glares in the same direction.

That’s when his gaze swept over the chair Sans left in the middle of the living room for some reason. But it wasn’t the fact that his brother had been too lazy to put the chair back where it belonged that struck him. No, it was the white, small, fur-covered lump sleeping soundly on top of it.

Hu? that was strange? He could have sworn it was the dog outside. None of the sentry dogs would do something like that, and the scratching sounded like claws, not like fingers, fast, not like one of the other residents of Snowdin.

That peeked Papyrus interest. Who could it be? And why were they doing that? He could, of course, have just gone outside, see who it is and asked. But something about this whole thing made him want to observe rather than interrupt. Was it just a prank? Or was there a reason behind this.

The scratching continued along the wall, moving closer to where Papyrus was sitting, closer to the window where he could finally see who was making all this ruckus. 

When it arrived at the corner, connecting the long wall where it started, and the short wall with the window, Papyrus started to hear…other things as well.

It sounded like whispering, or at least something similar. He couldn’t understand any words, he couldn’t even hear if it was actually any language he knew, or if any words were said at all. 

Even closer he heard the heavy breathing, like somebody sniffing in some kind of aroma desperately, like a monster that was half starved to death would react to the smell of food nearby. Greedily sucking in the aroma as long as it was still too far away to eat.

It was next to the window when Papyrus noticed that, even though it was already so close to the window, so close he would have seen a part of their body, even if it was the small dog, he couldn’t see anything. Nothing changed.

Then the scratching was directly on the window, the glass making terrible, squeaking sounds, loud and grating. But still, nothing had changed outside of it.

Papyrus got up, looking at the window with raised brows, his brain, which was actually never there working to find a way to explain this. Maybe a ghost monster? No, they didn’t have claws, their hands and fingers were rather soft. His brother? No, even though he could prank people through time and space, he couldn’t turn invisible. 

He was also too lazy for something that involved moving around the entire house. Especially when he was sleeping, and he knew his brother was sleeping in his room, he always did at this time.

Papyrus looked outside, on hand resting on the knob, undecided to open the window or not. He pushed it open.

Papyrus was dragged outside, quietly, neither him nor anything else having the chance to makea sound. The window slammed closed behind him, locked from the inside as the scratching continued, moving towards the second floor.


	24. Day 20 - SF Sans

Day 20 - You never knew you could run that fast.

Sans never knew he could run that fast.

He wasn’t a slow skeleton, he was damn fast to be honest like an energized, he just never imagined he would ever reach this kind of speed. But he usually didn’t had to run for his life.

He woke up to a strange feeling, in a dark part of the forest he didn’t recognize. The moment he woke up he felt watched, feeling eyes on the back of his head, which hurt with every move, but not like from a hit, it was fuzzy, almost like stuffed with cotton.

Sans shook his head, regretting the motion, it felt like his eye lights came loose and jingled inside his head. It did clear his head a bit, making the sludge that seemed to have manifested in his head leave at least partly.

But he was still feeling watched, now hearing quiet voices and crunching steps through the snow. Sans turned around, just to get a punch to his face before he could even fully turn.

He fell back into the snow, looking up at a group of monsters, all surrounding him in a circle, grinning down at him with clearly unfriendly intentions.

Sans had a high defense and attack and could actually defend himself just fine, but he wasn’t in any condition to fight, his head still spinning, his limbs feeling like jelly.

Sans readied himself, placing his feet flat on the floor, sitting up in a crouch, ready to jump up and make a run for it. And as the first monster stepped forward, reaching back for a kick, Sans saw his chance.

The monster tried kicking him, Sans dodging, sending the monster flying on the floor, jumping up from the floor and running in a random direction.

He heard them following him instantly, heard their fast steps, their ragged breaths, the snow crunching beneath their feet and flying through the air. He ran blindly through the woods, willing his feet to move just a bit faster with every shout of the other monsters, with every time they started to gain on him.

Sans had a lot of stamina and energy, but even that was used up soon, he felt his legs tire and slow down, his pursuers taking that chance to gain on him fast, one of them grabbing his bandana, pulling him back. But Sans wasn’t ready to die, wasn’t ready to die in an unfair fight against so many monsters, wasn’t ready to die in the woods, alone, leaving his brother to wonder where he went for so many years to come.

He summoned a bone, holding it in his hand, letting himself be dragged back, just waiting for the perfect timing, then turned around and impaled the monster’s hand with it, making them let go of his bandana, using that motion to sprint away in the opposite direction, making his burning, tired legs just move a bit farther.

It took him a few minutes to realize that the monsters weren’t following him anymore, apparently losing him in the confusion and darkness. The moment he realized that, was the same body his body realized that there was no threat anymore, no need to run for his life.

His legs gave away, burning from exertion, Sans collapsing in the snow in a pile of bones and fabric. His breath came in ragged gasps, the snow icecold on his overheated bones, his entire bony numb but sore. 

It took him three tries to fish out his phone, and three more to dial his brother. He wasn’t going anywehere soon, and he was sure he heard faint, crunching steps, slwoly coming closer.


	25. Day 21 - US Papyrus

Day 21 - You can find the answer in your heart. Literally. Now start digging.

“ You can find the answer in your soul”, that was definitely not the answer Papyrus expected to get. 

__

He woke up in a dark room, something that looked like a small, old cellar, looking around confused, getting held back by something as he tried to stand up.

Metal chains jangled through the motion, pulling him down on the ground, Papyrus falling back on his behind, grimacing slightly, rubbing coccyx.

“where the hell am i?…hh…stupid chains, how am i supposed to get out of here”, he pulled at the chains, trying to find a weak link, dropping the metal as a voice boomed out of a small speaker at the ceiling.

“You can find the answer in your soul”, the voice sounded like it was distorted by one of those cheap voice changer apps Papyrus had used himself a couple of times to mess with his bro.

“and…that’s supposed to mean?”, Papyrus was scared, the fear making him annoyed at himself and the whole situation, which in turn made him angry. 

“You have fingers, don’t you? Start digging!”, the voice answered, in the way you explain something very simple to somebody you had already explained this thing to about a thousand times.

“and…i should do that why exactly? i could just get out of here instead, that sounds like a way better thing to do”, Papyrus readied himself to teleport, the chains were pretty loose, he could easily just teleport out of them.

“Well, if you want your brother to die, then go ahead”, the voice sounded slightly amused, not really into the whole thing, rather just killing some time.

Papyrus froze instantly, what, no, his brother couldn’t be here. That was just a bluff! But…on the other hand, he was here. They both lived together. It would be so easy to just kidnap them both at the same time if you planned to kidnap one of them.

But Papyrus wanted proof. He was a skeleton who would always have his doubt without proof.

“PAPY?”, well alright, hearing his brother’s voice through the speaker was something he really didn’t want to hear. “PAPY ARE YOU THERE? DON-t…DON’T DO ANYTHING RASH, PLEASE I WILL BE FIN-…..”

Sans was cut off by silence. Nothing more followed, Papyrus left in the dark with his own thoughts for what felt like an eternity.

“You have 5 minutes or he dies”, the voice sounded impatient, startling Papyrus out of his shocked thoughts before drowning the room in silence again. 

“wait no! wait! come back you asshole! leave him alone, don’t you dare to touch him!”, Papyrus ragged in the empty cell, just getting more frustrated with every passing second of quiet.

“Four minutes.”

Papyrus froze in fear. No, he…he couldn’t…how was he even supposed to…

“Three minutes.”

Papyrus pulled up his hoodie, revealing his ribs, calming himself as far as he could, concentrating on summoning his soul. He was to shaken up to get it out the first time, or even the fifth, but then finally the inverted heart flickered into view, embedded in his sternum.

Papyrus placed the tips of his phalanges on the surface, pressing down slightly. Dig into his own souls? How was he supposed to…

The door opened. a person in a full body suit, including a mask covering their entire face, entered, dragging a heap of bones and fabric behind himself.

Sans was face down, tied up, gagged and angry. The anger faded as his gaze fell on his brother, being replaced by an ice-cold feeling running up and down his spine.

“Two minutes”, their voice was still distorted, a little plastic thing in front of where their mouth was the most likely cause for that.

The person placed Sans in front of them, pulling out a long, sharp and pointy knife, placing the tip right next to Sans eyesocket, slowly trailing around it.

Sans was frozen, eye lights out, trembling a bit, flinching everytime the knife almost entered his socket.

“Two minutes, dig or he dies.”

Papyrus hands started shaking, his phalanges still resting on his soul, still pressed onto it. He slowly increased the pressure, an uncomfortable feeling flooding his entire body.

“Come on, tick, tick, tick …”

Papyrus pressed harder, his teeth clenched and body rigid, the pressure getting almost unbearably uncomfortable.

Suddenly his finger dived below the surface, ripping through the outer shell of his soul into the gooey inner core.

Papyrus breath hitched, the pain paralyzing him at first before he screamed, eye sockets scrunched. It felt like every bone in his was broken and shattered. After his thoughts cleared enough to remember his surroundings, Papyrus slammed a hand in front of his mouth, muffling his shouts of pain.

He heard Sans shift and scream something at him, muffled by his gag, but Papyrus didn’t stop.

He stayed motionless for a few more seconds, before digging in deeper, each movement feeling like a sandpaper scratching over all of his bones. But he kept going, pushing farther and farther, slowly, agonizing, until his fingers met something hard. Something that wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Ah, you found it. Now come on….pull it out..”

Papyrus grabbed the round object, pulling it, gasping as it stayed lodged in his soul, making him just pull his entire soul. “i-…i can’t..”, his voice was shaky and weka, he was in pain, he just wanted to take his brother and go home. He couldn’t do this.

“One minute.” The voice sounded excited, even trough the distortion.

“i can’t it w-…won’t move..please”, Papyrus said, tears gathering at the corners of his sockets, even without moving, his entire body was aching.

“30 seconds.”

“but you just said one minute!”,

“10 seconds.”

“no wait!”

“5 seconds.”

Papyrus grabbed the object in his soul harder, pulling, but it still wouldn’t budge, only sending waves of paint through his bones.

“Four.”

Papyrus whimpered as he felt the object shift, finally moving, scraping through the core of his soul, fine dust trickling out of the open wound at the front.

“Three.”

The object suddenly stopped again, stuck, as were his fingers.

“Two.”

It just wouldn’t move, he pulled with his entire strength, the pain the only thing he was still perceiving, not even remembering why he was doing it. he only knew he had to get it out, but it wouldn’t move.

“One.”

It was stuck. It was stuck. It was stuck. He just couldn’t move it a bit, no matter how much he tore his soul to shreds. Why wasn’t it moving, it was almost out, he just had to get it out, just a bit more, just a bit.

“Zero.”

The object left his soul with a sickening, wet sound, Papyrus screaming out, at the same moment the person stabbed the knife into Sans eyesocket, crunching trough the back of his skull, making him crumble to dust instantly.

“To late.”

Papyrus only felt numb as the person left without another word, locking him in the cellar with his brother’s dust on the floor.

He looked at the small, plastic chip in his hand, still covered with his own dust, reading “Congratulations, you won!” in a goofy font.


	26. Day 21 - UT Frisk and Chara

Day 21 - You can find the answer in your heart. Literally. Now start digging.

A determined soul had its perks, you could mess with time and even death itself. But nobody said it was easy. Nobody said using determination was just wishing for time to turn back. You had to harvest the determination before you could use it.

“How can I do that?”, Frisk was sitting cross-legged in the void between life and death, following Charas pacing in front of her, with her eyes. 

“Well..it’s not really easy. But believe me, it will be worth it.”, Chara looked nervous but confident, determined. She wasn’t too fond of humans, but the younger kid grew on her, Chara developing a need to get the child through the Underground, no matter what.

But then they reached Undyne, the aggressive fish impaling Frisk on a spear and sending them out of their life. They didn’t die though. They stayed somewhere in between, their determination keeping them alive, they just need a small push back into life.

“So how do I get that?”, Frisk was still a kid, squinted, curious eyes looking up at Chara. Chara sighed, better get it over with fast, like ripping off a bandaid.

“ You can find the answer to that in your heart..well, or rather your soul”, Chara gave frisk a crooked grin, this won’t be pleasant.

“What’d you mean?”, Frisk started chewing on their sweater, eyes not meeting Charas. 

“Well…your determination is in your soul, right?”

Frisk nodded.

“But it’s no good in there, it can only keep you from dying and get you here, but you need to get your hands on it to actually use it.”

Frisk’s eyes widened, still confused, but a shiver running up their spine.

“You…you need to..well…”, Chara made a scooping motion with their hands, this was really uncomfortable.

Frisks mouth fell open, they scooted away from Chara, not afraid of the other child themselves, but rather of what they were proposing.

“You want to get out of the Underground, right? Not just stay here forever.”

Frisk looked at the little, red heart that was hovering in front of their chest since they woke up in this void. Just scoop out some determination and keep going, that didn’t sound so hard now, did it?

Frisk carefully cupped their hands around the fragile looking, glowing heart, running their fingers over the surface. It was smooth and warm, they could feel the motion all over their body, like stroking themselves with their fingers.

Chara watched with curiosity, not coming nearer, but leaning forward a bit.

They dug their fingers in there with more force, gasping out at the sudden pain, that replaced the stroking. 

“Chara, that hurts!”, they had already tears in their eyes, not touching the soul with their hands, leaning away from it.

“I know, I know, but keep going, you just need a bit and were both out of here”, Chara went over, placing a hand on their shoulder, smiling down at them in what they hoped was comforting.

Frisk slowly grabbed their soul again, eyes suddenly glinting with determination as they dug their fingers into the surface again. They flinched, gritting their teeth, tears spilling from their eyes. 

Chara watched with astonishment how they kept going until, with a sudden popping sound, their fingers dug through the surface.

With a yelp, Friks doubled over, letting go over their soul, curling up on the floor crying silently as the pain send shock waves through her body over and over, only slowly fading.

They felt a gentle hand, slowly stroking them over the back as the pain faded enough for them to feel something else again.

“See, all over already..”, Chara threw another crooked grin, helping them sit up again, Frisk cupping their still hurting heart with their hands. The hole was weeping a red liquid, which Frisk caught with her hands, closing her eyes.

“See you in a bit”, Chara said as the world faded into a red glow.


	27. Day 22 - UT Grillby

Day 22 - You don’t need an escape plan if you take your kidnapper hostage. 

Grillby didn’t plan his day like this. He actually wanted to spend a normal, routine day, getting up, breakfast, open the bar, eat some dinner while taking a break, open the bar up again for the patrons that come later in the day, ask Sans about his tab and get punned in return, close the bar and go home to watch some TV, read a book or entertain himself somehow else before bed.

But instead, he woke up in a dimly lit room, something that looked like a bedroom, but dusty and barely used, his memories fuzzy, the last one being him locking the back door of his bar and leaving.

He was tied to a chair with a rope, gagged with a cloth, sighing he tried to burn it but…it stayed. Something was not normal about this rope, his magical flames just dripped off the ropes, not even scorching them. The cloth was the same, not even moving as he wrapped his burning tongue around it.

Well, that was not good.

The door opened with a creak, a person covered from head to toe with bandages, two gleaming eyes looking through the only gaps in the fabric, entered. They were hauling a large tray with them, metal objects piled on top of it.

They were quiet, only rasping a breath in and out again, lungs rattling. Grillby tried to speak, his voice muffled by the rag, but the sounds got ignored.

The person placed the tray on a little bedside table, running their hands over the objects, no instruments on top. Surgical instruments. Scalpels, bone saws, syringes, cotton pads and small, metal bowls.

Grillby shifted in his bonds, well this was even worse than just being tied to a chair. 

The person picked up a scalpel, walking over to Grillby, not saying a word, not acknowledging any of his muffled shouts or desperate movements. They went for his head, without any hesitation, slicing along his ear. Yes, Grillby had ears, hidden beneath the flames.

The feeling, the pain was already bad, but the sound, god the sound was worse. The crunching, ripping, squelching sound, as the liquid magic of his core poured out of the wound, extinguishing parts of his outer flames. It was dangerous for a fire elemental to bleed. Tears were just magic, but blood was a strange liquid that extinguished the flames around the wound so it could heal easier. But too heavy bleeding would put out to much fire. 

It also burned like hell, Grillby screaming into the rag, biting into it to ground himself somehow from the pain. The bandaged person didn’t seem to mind the noise, or the flames licking at their hands, just inspecting the ear, before suddenly, unwrapping the bandages around their head, revealing a pinkish, bumpy mass beneath, Grillbys insides clenching as he saw the…thing, there just was no other word for it, reveal it’s glistening, slimy form.

It pressed Grillbys ear against its head, thin tendrils shooting out and wrapping around the severed ear, pulling it closer and somehow connecting it with the things head. The ear had already begun to dust, but as it connected to the tendrils, the fine powder stopped pouring, the ear staying were it was, not falling apart anymore. Grilyb watched in horror, slowly understanding what he was here for.

He was just a stock of spare parts, the thing rebuilding itself.

It dropped the scalpel, grabbing the bone saw next, Grillby fighting against his bonds, trying to burn them, trying to burn the thing, but neither the rope nor the things bandages were catching fire, not even getting a small bit of damage. All of the cloth in this room seemed to repel magic, and Grillby had no wait to fight back.

Next was Grillbys leg, the thing unbinding his left leg, Grillby immediately kicking it in the face, his shoe only colliding with something soft with a wet, crunchy sound, getting sucked in a bit like kicking bunching a large blob of chewing gum. The thing didn’t even flinch, just calmly grabbing his leg again, pulling it out of its face and placed the bone saw just below his knee.

The saw cut through the fabric in one stroke, cutting farther with a hiss, separating the flames until it reached the core of Grillbys leg, crunching through the hot, hard magic there, spilling more liquid, slowly extinguishing the flames on his leg.

Grillby was trashing in his bonds, trying to free his leg from the steel grip it had on it, but to no avail. He moaned in pain as the leg finally separated completely, the thing pulling it away from the few strings of magic that were still holding onto it. The leg was completely extinguished, only a dark gray thing, soon to dust, but still staying strong.

The thing removed its bandages from its leg, the pinkish, gooey stump there as disgusting as the head. It grabbed it’s leg, plainly ripping it off, throwing the stump away and jamming Grillbys leg, the same tendrils from before now connecting to the leg.

Then the thing left. Just like that, no sound, no motion. It just dropped the bone saw, and walked out, leaving Grillby to slowly pass out.

This continued for days, Grillby now had lost both ears, an eye, several fingers and his lips. His mental state was being torn apart even worse than his physical. He started hallucinating from blood loss, his magical liquid had extinguished most of his flames, making him shiver permanently.

He was slowly forgetting how his life was before this, flinching at every sound, just waiting for the thing to come back, and stare at him with that one eye, his eye.

But then it finally made a mistake. It removed the bonds onGrillby, placing him on the bed, thinking he was too weak to fight back, to do anything. 

Grillby saw everything like trough cloudy glass, seeing the thing pick up the parts it ripped off itself, that were still in the room, and press them against Grillbys stumps and holes. Grillby broke in that moment. His own eye staring at him as those disgusting, pink tendrils made their way inside him, he could feel them slowly travel through his body, up to his brain, giving him control over the pink mass.

He started laughing, this was ridiculous, he couldn’t burn it, he couldn’t hit it, he was just going home and woke up in a hellish nightmare that went on and on and on.

He punched the thing, hitting his own eye with the pink fingers he now had. The eye exploded through the impact, pink tendrils retreating, the thing actually flinching, reacting for the first time since Grillby woke up here.

Grillby suddenly found a new purpose, he long had given up on escaping, but he could make the thing go through the same thing he had to go through, use the short time before the last of his flames would go out completely and he would die to get his revenge.

The calm fireman who he was before this wouldn#t have thought about revenge. But how he was now…it was the only thought that was left, the only thing he was still holding on to.

He used all his strength, jumping up and hitting his flat hands against the sides of the things head, aiming for the ears, sandwiching that disgusting, pink, blobbish head between his palms. The thing fell back, covering its ear, stunned from the impact.

Grillby grabbed it, tying it up with the rope that still on a heap on the floor. dragging it over to the chair and tying it to it. 

Now it was his turn.

Now he was the one in control.


	28. Day 23 - US Sans

Day 23 - “How could you do that “

You always thought you were a good person. You were polite, friendly and warm to your boyfriend, his brother, his friends, your friends, your family. To random strangers on the streets and people you just met.

You knew you were a good person, even on the day you did something that wouldn’t be considered …..’good’…..by society. But you still knew, you were good.

You checked the ropes you tied around Sans unconscious form. They were still holding strong and in place.

It wasn’t too hard to drug him, just a few drops in his food, and even easier to carry him home to you. You had a car, after all, it was dark outside, and the few passersby who saw you carry him probably thought he was just drunk. It wasn’t uncommon to see people your age drunk at this hour of the night in this part of the city after all.

Sans was on your bed now, bounded but not gagged. You didn’t want to gag your boyfriend, after all, that wouldn’t be very nice now, wouldn’t it. Now you just had to wait for him to wake up, and he would be all yours. You thought you definitely deserved this, he said himself that he wants to spend more time with you. And what better way then never be separated again.

You heard some fabric rustling, some small whimpers, and moans, watching excitedly as Sans woke up, looked around with unfocused eyesockets, brows raised, mouth slightly open. His eye sockets widened, his eye lights turning to small pinpricks. Then his gaze fell on you, and you smiled at him, cupping his face in your hand.

He didn’t seem to understand what was happening.

“LOVEPAL? WHAT....WHAT IS GOING ON?” 

He wriggled in his bonds, unable to free himself, you just watching. He was so cute when he put so much effort into something. His movements became hectic.

“DATEFRIEND, WHAT IS HAPPENING? PLEASE HELP ME GET THIS ROPE OFF BEFORE WHOEVER DID IT COMES BACK, I HAVE TO PROTECT YOU!”

Oh, how cute, he thought you were in danger. You laid down beside him, face to face, booping his nose. He wasn’t going anywhere, he was yours now, under your control.

Understanding dawned on his face, disappointment. His eye lights went dim, his face dropping.

“How...how could you do this?”, Sans voice was quiet now, nowhere near the booming volume he usually talked in. Ah, you loved this new, quieter side of him. 

You cuddled up to him, ah, yes how could you do this?

You were just too kind sometimes.


	29. Day 24 - UT Mettaton

Day 24 - You wonder if a present should have such a bad smell to it.

Mettaton was used to receiving presents. From people he knew, from people he didn’t, family, friends, strangers, co-workers, fans. 

He was used to an avalanche of letters in his mailbox, and a small pile of packages on his doorstep. It wasn’t a daily thing, sometimes he only had a few bills in the metal box, but today was definitely a fan-post day.

Mettaton carried an armful of packages inside, flooding his coffee table with an avalanche of wrapping paper. There were some sweets, some cards, some things fans wanted to be signed and send back, some shirts and makeup, some handcrafted things, Mettaton smiled a bit more with each unwrapped item. He loved his fans.

There were only a few packages left when he noticed the smell. It wasn’t too bad, just slightly sickening. And it was coming from the small, badly wrapped package on his table.

Mettaton picked it up, turning it around in his hands, before placing it back down. Maybe it was some kind of sweets that went bad? No…it smelled more..savory? Kind of salty maybe? His sense of smell has never been that great.

Mettaton decided to throw it away, it didn’t smell like something he should open like that.

But it didn’t stop there, each day another, bad smelling package arrived, Mettaton throwing each one out again. He loved his fans, but somebody sending him rotten food wasn’t something he was fond of.

Each was rather small, but slowly growing in size until one day a big, beautifully wrapped box was sitting on his doorstep. A box at the top with a small note attached to it. It still smelled rancid, worse than any of the previous, smelly packages.

Mettaton was now truly annoyed, fine, he was opening this thing, maybe that would end this madness.

He removed the bow, lifting the top of the box, before dropping it again with a strangled, retching sound, covering his mouth and backing away from the package. 

There was a whole head in there. A whole human head. Mettaton looked inside, before slowly looking over to the garbage tons where the previous packages rested. 

A piece of paper in the box caught his attention, dragging him back over to the gory display. 

‘This is the last part of me. Keep them all so we can be together forever.’

Mettaton threw the box away, locking himself in his room, not moving for hours before finally calling the police.


	30. Day 25 - UF Frisk

Day 25 - “Ha! I told you I could bring them back.”

Frisk was an angry child. A scared child. Living in a harsh home, with harsh people, under harsh rules. Breaking the rules, making one small misstep resulted in punishment, harsh punishment no matter how small the mistake was.

So they ran. Ran away from their harsh home, hidding in the forest near a mountain. Searching for shelter from the rain they entered a cave, falling down a hole they noticed to soon.

They stayed angry and scared, journeing trough the Underground. But they slowly warmed up to the monsters, the monsters warmed up to them. They found a new mum, new friends who felt like long lost brothers, new friends who felt like sisters, new friends who looked out for them.

Frisk was a gentler child when they freed monsters, they fought back, out of fear and frustration, but they never killed, seeing monsters who were as afraid as they themselves, some who fought out of fear, some who fought out of desperation.

Frisk never killed, they understood the monsters, they themselve fought back at their home, not becaus they wanted to hurt, but becaus they wanted to survive.

Frisk was a happy child. A friendly child. Living in a warm home, in a warm family, with reasonable rules and soft punishment for overstepping them. They went to bed an hour earlier when they broke a vase, they never feared to be thrown outside to spend the night in the garden.

They didnt wanted to run anymore, when they left home they always returned.

Frisk was a trusting child, opening up to monsters and humans, slowly but steadily. Going with whoever asked for their help.

“Ha! I told you I could bring them back.” They didnt knew the man who threw them into the arms of another. But they knew the arms. The arms that dragged them inside, not letting them escape.

Frisk was an angry child. A scared child. Living in a harsh home, with harsh people, under harsh rules. Waiting, searching for a way to return to the warm home they finally found and lost again.


	31. Day 26 - HT Papyrus

Day 26 - You really hoped to befriend them. You just can’t help it. You are so hungry.

You really wanted to befriend them. You haven’t had a real friend since Undyne before she changed like everybody else did. Like you did.

You met some nice humans after you have been freed like your brother and all other monsters. You just wanted to make friends but most ran from you. They didn’t. They talked with you, were friendly, came over for bad TV and good company. They liked you and you liked them back.

But you noticed something over the days and weeks you spend on the surface. You became…hungry. You ate food, of course, but nothing stopped the gnawing feeling inside you.

You craved something you could never eat again, something you didn’t want to eat again, something that made you wake up in the middle the night, confused and scared, reminding you of what you had done Underground.

You decided not to sleep. A mistake you later realized. Your already forgetfull mind didnt get any better trough the sleep deprivation, you slowly forgott where you where or what you were doing, more and more often.

One day you were just preparing food, so hungry, the need to eat something overpowering what else could have been on your mind.

You only later realized that you had guests over for dinner.


	32. Day 27 - US Alphys

Day 27 - What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Alphys saw herself as a protector of monsters who couldn’t protect themselves. She could be loud and….yes, even if she didn’t like it also rude. But she was always ready to help the ones in need.

Even if that meant to risk her own life.

A murderous human, an evil from the depths of hell, an evil human from the depths of hell. That were ways she imagined herself leaving the world of the living. Something heroic, amazing, epic!

What she didn’t imagine was an avalanche. A simple avalanche, the force of nature being her demise.

Covered by snow and rocks she came to, almost frozen solid. She was a lizard monster, and her extra warm clothes couldn’t keep her body warm for long. She sighed, wiggling in her tightly packed prison, not giving up, even though she could feel death approaching her in the cold darkness of the snow. 

She was the Leader of the Royal Guard. she suplexed herself daily, she ate rocks for breakfast.

But she couldn’t feel half of her body, her other half slowly going numb too. Her movements became weaker, her fighting spirit still alive and awake, but for the first time, she felt herself lose her determination to keep fighting.

She was so cold and tired.

Her eyes slid shut.

Her breathing became slow and deep.

..

..

Her eyes snapped open, she heard something.

Somebody crying out for help. Here, under the snow.

Something deep inside her started to burn, something in the core of her being, in the depths of her soul. Her eyes were ablaze with a power she didn’t understand, she only felt it coursing through her veins, setting her on fire.

She began to dig, the cries for help becoming weaker, her movements became faster, her scales, some already weakened as they had started to dust, breaking off bit by bit, revealing new, darker, sturdier ones. Her eyes and mouth dripping from the glowing power inside of her, her eyes losing their brown, warm color, completely white, fixed on the small hole she could see in the snow. 

She broke through the snow with a war cry, jumping out and starting to dig again without a pause, hearing nearby onlookers shout something, sounding…terrified? But she didn’t care, her mind fixed on two tasks. Survive, and help. Survive to help the ones in need.

It was one of the Innkeepers children, the small bunny barely awake, but flinching away from her as she grabbed him, before recognizing Alphys behind her changed outside.

She saved him, she survived.

But at home, she couldn’t help but avoid the mirror that showed a face she no longer recognized.


	33. Day 28 - UT Papyrus

Day 28 - Monsters are kind. Well, until they aren’t. You plan to find out how to achieve that. 

You met a lot of monsters in your life. Some were shy, some kind of annoying, some weird, some smart, some friendly, some reclusive. But you have never met another monster like Papyrus.

The tall, loud, always positive skeleton was always so kind to you, to everybody, nothing throwing him off, at least never for long. It really intrigued you.

There had to be a way to show his true, primal core. You couldn’t believe that his kindness was more than just a facade. He was a monster after all. 

You heard of monsters in fairy tales. They were never the good guys, never helped humans. You were sure Papyrus was the worst of them all, dragging you towards him with his kind words and bright smile just to devour you whole.

You decided to test your theory.

You scared away all his other human friends, telling them about your theory, making them afraid of him, saving his prey from him before he dragged them in too deep. His monster friends were still there, but you didn’t care about them. He wouldn’t attack his own kind after all.

Then you started insulting him, his smile faltering for a moment, but never truly going out. He took all the insults without ever getting angry, sometimes pretending that you were talking about yourself, sometimes saying that he was so great, he had to have those faults so others wouldn’t be too intimidated by him.

Then you started to hurt him. Small hits at first, then cuts, burns, giving them all out with a sweet smile. You were doing the right thing.

But he forgave you, sometimes blocking a few of the harsher blows, but never hitting back. Telling you he believed in you, that whatever made you do this won’t defeat you. That you would get through it.

It made you sick. That he kept this charade going for so long, that he didn’t reveal his true self.

But you had one last trick up your sleeve. You knew about his friends and family. Knew that his brother was weak, Papyrus constantly worried about him. You knew how much he loved his older brother, both looking out for each other even when they kept bickering.

It wasn’t too hard to drug his brother, you were over at their place often, you saw him drink that disgusting tomato sauce. You poured in a handful of sleeping pills, dragging his sleeping body into the living room, tying him up and calling Papyrus.

Papyrus was horrified, seeing you hold a knife to his brother’s neck, sometimes touching it slightly with the tip. Just a bit harder and he would lose a fraction of HP you told Papyrus. He better showed you his true self if he didn’t want his brother to dust.

But Papyrus just stood there. Talking to you. Telling you he could help you with whatever was troubling you.

You pressed the knife a bit harsher against Sans neck, making his HP drop to 0.8. Papyrus jerked, trying to get closer, but you shook your head.

You told him again to show you the monster he truly is. He begged you now to let him help you, to not do this. You pressed the knife against Sans neck, making his HP drop another 0.2 points.

This time Papyrus attacked you. A row of bones aimed at you to knock you away from Sans, but there was no intention to harm, no intention to kill, the bones only bruising you slightly, your grip on the knife still steady.

You pressed it in again, screaming at him that you knew about monsters. You knew they were evil. You knew he was evil.

A voice in your head told you, you were wrong. He didn’t harm you even though he could. But you knew it was only part of his charade. The one he kept going and going even now.

Papyrus told you he was sorry for having to do this. You felt your soul get heavy, saw it turn blue, felt yourself being dragged away, carefully, so carefully, a bone hitting your hand to knock the knife out of it.

It frustrated you so much to see him handle you with care, even though you hurt his brother. How he actually let you go, rushing to his brother, cradling him in his arms.

You saw a rock on the table, covered with sprinkles, taking it into your hand.

You would break him, make him show his true self, even if you had to kill for that.


	34. Day 29 - Monster Kid

Day 29 - If Monsters are supposed to live under humans beds, what lives under monsters beds?

Kid had heard a lot of stories about humans. How the food they ate wasn't made out of magic and didn't completely dissolve inside their bodies. How they didn't fall to dust after they did. Or how they apparently looked pretty similar to one another, instead of having major, physical differences like monsters did.

But what stayed with them the most was that humans were apparently scared of monsters living under their beds.

They often found picture books and comics that had a human child tell their parent to check under the bed for monsters. But Kid knew monsters didn't live under beds, except for a few smaller rock, yarn and carpet monsters who often preferred to live under furniture.

So maybe…something else lived under beds? Maybe humans? Maybe a few monsters lived under human beds and in return, a few humans lived under monsters beds?

Kid shuddered as they lay awake in the middle of the night, imagining a human beneath their bed just waiting to grab them. Their sister just laughed at them, asking them why humans should live under their bed.

But kid had heard the rumors. That a human was Underground. That they had killed a few monsters. That nobody could find them.

Suddenly there was a scraping sound, echoing softly in their ears. Something was under their bed. Something moving. Something scratching. Something suddenly tugging at their bedsheet, one corner dangling down from the bed.

Something pulling their bedsheet down, pulling them closer to the edge. Something staring at them from the darkness beneath their bed, their face so close to those terrifying eyes.

Kid screamed, jumping back onto their bed they hit hard against the wall, pulling their legs up to them as the room reverberated with...

Laughter.

Their sisters laugh.  
Kid dropped their head in their lap, ashamed of getting tricked like that by their sister, before shooing her outside.

They sighed, leaning against their wardrobe, annoyed at their sisters constant pranks. Suddenly there was a scratching sound right behind them, the door opening slowly, creaking, something glinting in the dark.

Kid heard about humans thinking that monsters hid under their beds.

They also heard that humans were afraid of monsters in their closets.


	35. Day 30 - UT Sans

Day 30 - You decide to prank somebody with a “moving doll”. Hm, but you can’t remember placing it there.

Sans loved to prank Grillby. Well, ok he loved to prank everybody, but Grillbys reaction was always something else. 

He stayed quiet and collected, but Sans could see the small shift in the way his flames flickered, the short, annoyed glance into Sans direction, the way his glasses slid down just a tad. Sans lived for that.

And he found the perfect way to prank his flaming friend. He gave him a doll. Just some old thing he found at the dump. He knew Grillby wouldn’t throw presents away, no matter how crappy and weird. He knew when Grillby was out of his apartment and when he would return. Sans could teleport.

He blinked into existence in Grillbys apartment, spotting the doll immediately, moving it just a few centimeters. Then he blinked back to his room, just as the door creaked open. He would love to see Grillbys face, he knew the fire monster, he knew how he would see the difference, but not be able to properly place his finger on what was wrong.

The next time he moved the doll, he moved it a few more centimeters, to a different piece of furniture, the time after that to a different room.

Then one day Sans woke up to the doll staring at him, inside his room, on his floor, in front of his bed, just directly next to his face. After almost screaming from shock, and falling of his mattresses, Sans laughed. Of course, Grillby found out that it was him, he just didn’t expect the quiet and collected man to actually prank him back.

He threw the doll into a corner in his room, trying to remember to bring it back over to Grillby later. After breakfast of course.

The house was quiet. Very quiet. Not a kind of quiet that was reserved for those who lived together with Papyrus. An eerie quiet. And the doll.

In the middle of the table, just sitting there. 

Of course Sans noped out of there right away.

But the doll was there already. Waiting for him, taunting him.

Sans noped back home, everything was still quiet, so quiet, too quiet. His brother wasn’t in his room, only the doll. On a pile of grey powder, looking at him.

Sans kicked it, teleporting away, to Grilllbys bar. This was getting out of hand, this prank was going too far. You didn#t joke about his brother, especially not like this, Grillby knew that.

The bar was empty. Piles of dust littering the ground. And the doll.

Sans picked it up, it was just a doll, a regular doll, fabric stuffed with cotton. Was this still a prank? Was everybody alive or dead?

He threw the doll on the ground, walking towards the door. But something held him there, something…the doll. It was wrapped around his leg, holding him firmly in place.

It didn’t take much. One hit and the doll was sitting next to another pile of grey, powdery dust.

Years later a human child fell down a hole in a mountain.

The only thing they found was an old doll, so old it was covered in a thick layer of dust, like all its surroundings.


	36. Day 30 - US Papyrus

Day 30 - You decide to prank somebody with a “moving doll”. Hm, but you can’t remember placing it there.

Papyrus had an amazing idea. Well, ok, a mediocre idea. He looked at the old, shaggy doll, a shiver running down his spine, before placing it under his brothers blanket, sneaking back out.

Now he just had to wait for his brother to go to bed and…Papyrus chuckled. Sans has always been creeped out by dolls, this was an amazing prank.

The day went by like normal, Papyrus pretending that there was nothing wrong, Sans throwing him weird glances from time to time.

Finally, Sans got up, stretched and went upstairs, telling Papyrus he had to get up early tomorrow like he did every evening. Papyrus wished him a good night and waited. And waited. And waited.

Sneaking upstairs and throwing a glance through a slightly cracked open door, just to see his brother curled up in bed, eye sockets closed. Hu? Seems like he didn’t see the doll.

Papyrus sighed, shuffling over to his room without even turning on the lights and throwing himself face first onto the mattress, only to jump away as he collided with something firm but soft.

Papyrus ported to the door, falling on his behind while fumbling for the light switch. The light turned on, and Papyrus saw what was on his bed. The doll. Papyrus mouth went slack, staring at the toy before bursting out laughing. Ohh, of course, Sans found the doll and decided to prank him back.

Papyrus grabbed the doll, throwing it into a corner before falling back onto his bed.

Something heavy landed on his chest. Papyrus cracked his eye open, flinching back at the doll staring him right in the face. Ok…this was weird.

Papyrus grabbed the doll again, throwing it away. Just to see it collide with the wall and land on its feet, staying upright and walking. It was walking. Towards him. Papyrus scooted away fast, falling off the mattress and stumbling to his feet, the doll still walking towards him, getting faster.

He sprinted over to the door, slamming against it, the door locked, the knob not moving, the doll now crawling towards him on all fours, fast like an animal.

Sans woke up to his brothers screams, running out of his room and throwing open the door to Papyrus bedroom only to find it empty, scratches on the carpet, on the door and the walls.

And a doll.


	37. Day 31 - UT Main Four

Day 31 - Only the friendly monsters got locked under the mountain, they were too weak to resist. What stayed outside, well that is a whole other can of worms.

The barrier fell through a quiet child that seemed so afraid of monsters, no matter how funny their antics and how friendly their voices were. IT seemed strange that a child as brave as they were would still be afraid of the harmless monsters like they had encountered something far worse, something this monsters reminded them of.

After the monsters left the Underground for the first time they didn’t see anything strange that could have made the child so afraid, something that made them pause and wait before they went outside.They marveled at the sun and the sky, the trees, and mountains, the city so close to their former prison, bustling with life.

They settled down close to the mountain, at first not contacting any humans, too busy with leaving the mountain and finding a place to sleep. 

But after their first contact with the inhabitants of the city…they finally understood the childs fear.

Not all monsters got locked under the mountain. A few stayed, damaged through the war, but still fighting. And they won.

Monsters lived among humans, but things were harsher for both sides, both still stuck in the war, still stuck in fighting. Things were kill o be killed up here. 

____

Sans was the first to meet his counterpart. It was a strange experience, walking through the dirty streets at night as suddenly a cage of bones formed around him, unstable, like the caster didn’t had the stamina to keep this attack upright.

“pal, better gimme yar fucking cash or i will rip ya to bits.”, Sans recognized the voice, so similar to his own, yet so much…harsher. Strained. Angry and desperate. 

“buddy, chill. i have 5g, you can have them if you get rid of this”, Sans pointed at the structure around him. But it stayed. And moved towards him at incredible speed.

Sans ported out of the way, the other skeleton conjuring a bone in his hand, jumping at Sans suddenly appearing in front of him. A bad idea.

The other Sans, already stressed and frustrated stared at him, confused, scared, only now getting a good look at his victim. 

He slashed Sans across the chest, a reflex, Sans crumbling to dust, not expecting such a harsh reaction.

“no, nonononononono”, the other Sans just wanted some money for food, his brother’s income barely enough for the house they lived in. He didn’t want to actually kill. He never wanted to kill. 

He grabbed the money, more then 5g, so much they could eat, so much he could drink himself stupid and forget this ever happened. He ran home, savoring the burning in his legs, seeing it as his punishment.

____

Papyrus met his counterpart just as his brother turned into a pile of dust at the other end of the town.

He wanted to get some groceries, some necessary things for the monsters living in the makeshift town they build close to the mountain. Some water, some food, some blankets, for those who couldn’t leave themselves, having to take look after their children, or just to old to walk that far without a problem.

Leaving the store some monster he never met and would never meet again ran into him, knocking him over. Papyrus felt their hands move over his clothes, into his pockets, take out the gold he still had left.

They ran, but didn’t make it very far, a wall of bones blocking their path.

Papyrus saw himself, somebody just like him, but angrier, pointier, more damaged in so many places step out of an alley, grab the other monster, a bone ready in his other hand, ready to strike.

the bone collided with bone instead of flesh, Papyrus taking the blow himself for the other monster, meeting the eyes of the other skeleton. Both looked at each other, eyes wide, almost forgetting the other monster.

Suddenly they attacked back, slicing through Papyrus, trough his core, damaging him heavily, striking the other Papyrus. He dusted them immediately, ignoring Papyrus begging to grant them mercy.

The other Papyrus saw himself, his gentler, softer self, collapse on the floor, marrow leaking out of the wound in his chest. 

Something rang in his soul, at the way he pleaded for mercy for somebody who almost killed him. The other Papyrus recognized something he lost a long time ago, something that was only fragments now, fragments he desperately held onto, his ideals getting buried under the harsh reality.

He picked his softer counterpart up, carrying him towards his home.

____

Alphys was barely conscious during her encounter with her other self. She felt something in her neck, something piercing the scales, her vision getting blurry, fast as she fell to the ground without a sound.

She saw somebody come near her, saw her own feet, scarred and damaged in front of her. Heard her voice mutter something, saw her own face, covered in scars, glasses cloudy in front of her, eyes wide, mouth agape.

She saw herself being dragged away.

She never regained full consciousness again. Brief periods of time were she saw a lab, her lab but so different, harsher, cruel, darker, covered in blood and dust.

Were she saw herself, her darker self, her sadistic self, hold instruments, sharp and pointy in her chipped claws.

The few times she saw something like regret in her other selfs eyes, disappearing again as she muttered: “I have to do this, the king needs me, monsters need me.”

Then nothing.

____

Undyne didn’t know the fate of the others, to wrapped up in a fight with herself. 

They were an even match, both as strong as the other, both as fast, both as agile and both as clever as the other. Both blocking the others blows without a problem.

The only difference was the intent to hurt, to kill, to end the others life. Undyne saw the glint in her counterparts eyes, the spears she knew wouldn’t miss her. She blocked them all, but they broke through, impaling her through the chest, through the stomach, through her leg and her throat.

Her own spears were precise, but not strong enough to break through the other’s defence, but her harsher, angrier counterpart wanted to kill her, wanted to hurt her, her spears doing so much more damage.

Undyne collapsed on the floor, her determination keeping her alive. But even determination had its limits. 

Undyne saw her other self-raise her hand, saw a cascade of spears come towards her. Then she saw nothing more.

Four monsters woke up with a start on the floor of a warmly lit, cozy living room, all of them covered in sweets and wrappers, still partly dressed in costumes, the last night of the month of horrors passed while they slept.


End file.
